The Shaggy Teen Titan
by KF fan
Summary: A certain dark haired, shape shifting Teen Titan experiences an unwelcome transformation. Oh. You thought I meant Beast Boy?
1. The other shape shifter

_Author's note: Follows after my stories Reach the Horizon and Here's a Good One, but you don't have to have read those for this to make sense. This one's in a bit lighter vein._

The first time Robin went to the Jump City Museum of Rare Antiquities on Jump Boulevard, nothing happened.

Nothing had been taken from the museum, not yet. The Titans answered the call that came in on a Tuesday morning. The security alarm had gone off but nothing seemed amiss when they arrived. Kid Flash, of course, had been first and had relayed to Robin the words of the staff. False alarm. Must've been a false alarm. But, Robin had his suspicions. It was one of Red X's tricks to set off an alarm and gauge response to it and study the alarm mechanism itself before committing the actual robbery. So, while the rest of the Titans were rather blase after they all reached the Museum and found apparently nothing going on, no one robbing the place and no one to chase, Robin's antennae went up.

Kid Flash zipped around and read the plaque at every display and talked on his Titans communicator withJinx, back at the Tower. Beast Boy joked with Cyborg about his incorporating some medieval pikes in his own armaments. Raven rolled her eyes at them and discreetly watched intellectually fascinated Kid Flash out of the corners of her eyes. And, Robin inspected the wiring with Starfire trailing behind him and made his way to the office of the director of the museum.

The museum director, a little white haired old man, checked and made sure that everything was still in place. It seemed like an odd place to Robin, all filled with pikes and swords but also crowns, tiaras, rings, bracelets, amulets, ancient bling of every sort, some of it very valuable for the gems and gold contained in them. There were even claims of magical powers attributed to some of the stuff outlined in the cards by each display. Robin rolled his eyes behind his mask. They probably have to say things like that to make it more interesting to kids.

He went about with the little white haired man who kept staring at him so oddly. This museum director turned out to be a professor and he eyed Robin rather openly, staring at him from one side then the other as he led him around. But the Titans all got that sort of gawking all the time, not being exactly the boys or girls next door. So, Robin thought nothing of it as he went from case to case with the museum director confirming that seals were unbroken on all the displays. Nothing had been touched. It could have just been a short somewhere in the electrical system. It was certainly possible. But so was Red X practicing on the alarm system. Robin ran his theory by Cyborg and the little white haired man returned to his office where Kid Flash was looking at some of the odd items on his desk.

"I love all this stuff, sir. What's the significance of this quill pen?" asked Kid Flash holding up a glass box with a worn quill pen inside.

The little white haired man spoke while looking not at Kid Flash, but out to where Robin was standing next to Cyborg and Beast Boy just past them.

"That pen is reputed to have been used by William Shakespeare himself in writing Othello."

"Wasn't the real author the Earl of Oxford, professor? . . . Professor?"

"The most perfect shapeshifter I've ever seen," the man sighed idly.

Kid Flash glanced out the doorway and saw Gar next to Cyborg with Robin beyond them. "Of course, professor. That's what Beast Boy does."

"KF. Come here!" called Robin and he zipped over to his pal. He never heard the little white haired man object softly. "No, not him. The black haired boy. A smallish nose just so. Ears just the right shape. Largish feet but not hands and a slender physique just so. Perfectly receptive to the right spell. You see the ancients believed that the energies and magnetism of human bodies varied with the shape of the body. A body just so, like your slender black haired friend is susceptible to energies from --"

He looked around to find that Kid Flash was not only not listening. He was no longer there. He shrugged and went about his work.

Robin approached Kid Flash back at the Tower. "So, tell me again. How'd you beat Red X those two times?"

"You're really set on the idea that the alarm going off was his test?"

Robin nodded. "There was a time when he robbed a jewelry store where we're certain that he tested the alarm one day. And it didn't go off. And he still waited to come back again to rob it. He's extremely meticulous. Now, how'd you beat him?"

"Well, you know about the first time. He had the cloaking device on and I accidentally steamrolled him in our hallway. And then uh Speedy and Aqualad took his suit off and uh . . . neutralized him . . . for a while."

Robin smirked. "If only he hadn't swam away that night."

"The other time, well, he just couldn't deal with me. I guessed where he was going to try to leave the building, the roof. And once I was up there I threw this container of water in the air and blew it and all these wrappers and trash all over the roof so that some of it would hit him and reveal his position even if he had the cloaking device on."

"Uh huh."

"And he tried a couple things to deal with me, he sent out some kind of gas but I just sort of arm cycloned that away," said Kid Flash doing a slow motion version to show Robin. "And he tried to electrocute me but I sort of sniffed that out too. My gloves don't conduct and I just kicked the crap out of him while we sort of grappled hand to hand."

"He didn't throw those little shuriken stars at you?"

Kid Flash shrugged. "Yeah, but, for me, it was like dodging a half dozen giant tortoises."

Robin nodded slowly. "He just couldn't deal with your speed?"

"No. Not really. And, I'm not being flippant. All our training in the year I've been a Titan's really helped me refine my use of my speed. But he didn't really have an answer at all when the gas and electricity didn't get him anywhere."

The next day, on their ride in to Jump City Academy where Wally Allenand Dick Grayson take two classes, calculus and biochemistry on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, Robin takes a very long route driving the T-Car. His orange haired passenger smiles. He knows just what Robin's doing. And, not surprisingly, this extra long route takes them past the Jump City Museum of Natural Antiquities.

"You really think he'd want to pull a job at this time of day, morning commute?" asked Kid Flash from the passenger seat in his chinos and Jump City Academy blazer.

"If he's got an escape route that doesn't require him to go through traffic he might benefit from it."

Kid Flash nodded. Logical. Robin pulled up to the street outside the museum's parking lot and turned to his passenger. In the blink of an eye, chinos and a blazer were replaced by the red and yellow uniform of Kid Flash.  
"I'll go check," he said. Robin nodded and started changing out of his school clothes and into his uniform while his best friend zoomed off, a red and yellow blur leading from their car to the front of the museum.

Two seconds later he sprinted back, his rapid fire footsteps almost a continuous sound approaching the driver's side window.

"He's there! He's there!" he told Robin excitedly. "I saw him on putting some rings in a bag. Black uniform, little cape, white mask face. Him. How do you want to handle this?" he asked his nearly fully uniformed teammate. Robin pulled on his cape and then jumped out of the car. His mind raced with the strategic options. Finally, he settled on one.

"Okay. We catch him outside. I'll distract him and you kick his ass super speed style. I'm the decoy. You're the hammer."

"Got it."

They worked their plan to perfection. Teamwork between the two pals had become so ingrained that, atone point in the short fight, Robin just glanced over to one side of Red X and then attacked him from the other side only to have Kid Flash barrel into him from exactly the location to which he'd glanced a second later. They were like a finely oiled machin, the two teen super hero boys. Red X tried everything. He had his cloaking device on as he exited the rear of the museum but Kid Flash blew water from a fountain and newly placed mulch all over the outside of the building and enough stuck to Red X to reveal his position. He ran and threw concealing smoke bombs but Kid Flash just blew the smoke away with more arm cyclones. He threw sharp stars at Robin but Robin dodged them. He grappled with Robin and took a super speed smack to the side of the head from Kid Flash while doing so. He tried to ward off Kid Flash with the threat of electrocution, sparks jumping from his gloves, but Robin threw a birdarang that quickly wrapped around his gloves, bringing together and shorting them out. Red X was clearly frantic and taking a beating but the two teen heroes didn't get impatient. He was still dangerous. They just progressively beat him up, till Robin nailed him with a flying, spinning kick and Red X staggered into Kid Flash who smashed him with a punch at the end of a super speed sprint that both knocked out Red X and sent his satchel of stolen items flying into the air around them.

"We did it!" laughed Robin. "We beat him! We finally beat him! Oh man. I want a pay channel that consists of just closed circuit footage of this guy moping in his cell. Saweeet!"

Kid Flash grinned at his pal.Good for him. He's wanted to bring this guy down for so long.Good for him. Had Robin ever had a bigger smile? He zipped over andhugged Robin about the shoulders.  
"KF!" And patted his butt. "Nice work, team captain. Youhad it right about what he was doing."

Robin just stood there grinning and gave Red X a kick in the butt for good measure. Hebent to pick up some of the stolen items scattered by Kid Flash's knockout punch and noticed that a couple had gotten stuck on his uniform. A gold necklace hung on his utility belt. He was nearly stepping on a tiara. He gave these items and any others in sight to Kid Flash who vibrated into the museum with all of them and returned them to their correct displays.

But he didn't get all of them. Robin feels something at the back of his collar wedged between his cape and collar. A ring. An old looking ring with an odd red and green gem and made of gold but desperately in need of some cleaning. Hmmph.Robin absentmindedly reads the inscription on the inside of the ring. It takes a minute because of the discoloration and wear on the ring and having to turn the ring just right in the light to read it. Some of the letters are barely visible and the script is a cursive with little flourishes.

" . . . In . . . ca . . . nis . . . cor . . . por . . . e . . . trans . . . mu . . . to . . . "

Pinpricks all over his body. His skin is on fire with these pinprick sensations.

Almost every square inch. Robin feels pinpricks all over his body, almost every square inch. What the hell? Did Red X send some kind of itching powder into the air as a last defense? He looks around quickly, his head on a swivel but doesn't see anything in the air. The itching is intense. He expects it to go away like a cold shudder or something raising hair on the back of your neck but it doesn't. It doesn't stop. Robin wants to ask Kid Flash about it. But, at the same time, Kid Flash feels his ring go off on his finger. Three vibrations. Three vibrations. Three vibrations.

"Robin!" he calls out fromthe middle of the parking lot, stoppingalmost as an afterthought on his way to sprint to Central City. "I'm getting a call from Flash asking for help. Can you handle this?"

"Of course I can," replies Robin denying the weird way his skin feels and, out of sight of Kid Flash, pressing one hand to the top of his butt where things feel really weird now. KF says thanks and zips off and Robin has to lean against a fence post. He looks down and sees the bulge at his crotch seem to deflate. What the--!Then he feels unsteady on his feet. His knees wobble back and forth.

Pffew! His knees seem to stabilize but now posture is an issue. The muscles of his legs and back are on fire and it almost feels like he's somehow become shorter. And it feels like such a strain to stand upright. He leans over a little bit. Pffew again. That's better. But then this posture also seems like a strain, again. He bends over some more. Again, improvement. This pattern holds three times till Robin finds himself on all fours. What the hell! And all the while, his skin is going crazy. Only the feeling of all the pinpricks has diminished. His skin feels a little itchy, very odd, quite different, maybe . . hairy somehow, but not bad.

He looks down at his green gloves and this is bad. They don't seem to fit at all any more. His hands feel so odd. Clumpy and awkward. What the hell's with my thumbs! His fingers feel shorter, his nails longer.

What the hell! Robin tries to say out loud but winds up asking "Lllll uh lllllll" because, somehow, his tongue now seems to be a foot long. It feels that long as it droops out of his mouth and down past his chin. He sticks it straight out and can actually see it. He can actually see a few inches of his tongue! Jesus, that's even worse than Wally's! Robin's frantic. And now changes are too dramatic and fast to deny. The Boy Wonder feels something at the seat of his pants, something that is him. Something that's not supposed to be there. He's getting shorter and his torso feels like it's in a vise in one direction, shoulders squeezing narrower but that his chest is somehow bulging forward at the same time. And he's suddenly aware that he can smell every single plant there by the fence, that he can smell and distinguish every piece of discarded paper, every piece of trash. He smells the hours old piss from a cat nearby.

"Goddam thiamethe, too!" he growls to himself. And just as he does, his nose, his mouth, his whole face reshapes into his new identity, nose and mouth projecting forward into a long muzzle, sharp teeth, jaws and tongue reshaping to fit. His mask falls off but at last, things quiet.

"Pffew! Thank god all that weirdness is over. That's better!" says Robin realizing that his blood had been pounding in his ears like a loud drum beat but now his high, pointy ears are quiet. He sighs and tries to get up but finds it to be extremely difficult. He glances to the side and sees a small pool of water. He walks to it on all fours. Yet, somehow his knees aren't touching the ground. "Why doesn't this feel more awkward?" he asks himself. But it feels perfectly natural. Weird. His four legged gait is smooth and natural. This isn't crawling. He's not moving on his knees. This is something he could do really fast if he wanted to.

At the water, Robin stares in shock.

"No! . . . . No!" he both begged and demanded.

Looking back at him, improbably wedged into the uniform of Robin, the boy wonder, is a German Shepherd, a brown eyed German Shepherd.

"This can't be! I can't be a dog! I can't! I'm supposed to see Starfire tonight!" says Robin surprised that he can still, somehow, speak and annoyed that the dog's big pointy mouth moved in time with his words proving that it was him speaking.

"That stupid ring!"

He looks behind him and sees the ring. He tries to pick it up but can't with his awkward new dog paws. He ends up just sort of pushing at it with the small clublike ends of his arms. He hesitates to say the phrase to himself. My paws. With an angry grunt at the situation, he picks it up in his long dog mouth and lies it back down in the brush at the edge of the parking area. He isn't anxious to be seen like that. He tries the ring again. He puts it under his paw, angry at how cumbersome these new dog limbs are. He tries reading the inscription again. Nothing. He tries to read it backward. Nothing. He tries simply willing himself to be a skinny boy again. He tries to remember how Beast Boy said he did it. Just think of the next animal, was that it? He tries to picture his normal self. Nothing.

"No!" he half shouts angrily and responds with surprise to the sound of his unchanged voice.

"Holy shit. That's right. I can still talk? How can that be? Course, how the hell am I supposed to be turned into a goddam dog just by reading the inscription on a ring."

Robin groans at that last part and resolves one more time to force his will on the situation. With the greatest possible effort, he willed that he should metamorphose back into being a 16 year old boy. With every scrap of his will he tried to reverse this ridiculous and humiliating situation. He tried to stand up at the same time as he was willing himself back to being a boy. But he found his new back muscles totally inadequate for the job. So, the doggy wonder jumped his front paws up on a low sapling branch. He stepped hesitantly closer with his embarassingly small back legs and moved his front paws up to higher then still higher branches till his back was almost vertical. He pushed unsteadily back from the sapling and tried to stay walking upright like that.

"I'm a boy!" he grunted angrily with the herculean effort. "I'm not a dog. I'm a boy!"

And then he fell back down onto his front paws, simply unable to maintain an upright posture. Back on his four paws, he felt much more comfortable. Sadly, he acknowledged to himself the fantastic but unavoidable truth.

" . . . I-I'm a dog. I really am a frigging dog."

He's nearly overcome by the humiliation of what's happened to him. His iron will proven useless, simply a dog whether he liked it or not. He feels his tail down between his furry legs in a classic canine posture of humiliation. But he snaps out of his self pity when he hears Red X groaning by the marble front steps of the museum where Kid Flash had knocked him out.

"Oh god! I can't let him see me like this!" whimpers Robin. He bites at his green gloves and easily pulls them off. His shoes practically fall off. His mask already had. But he can only get out of his red top with great difficulty and it seems to take him forever to pull himself awkwardly out of his green pants. He has to step on the waistband of his supporter with first one then the other paw wiggling his new dog butt and then hind legs frantically to free himself, wiggling and wiggling. His new backward bending knees get caught in the straps but finally he's free of his own supporter. He's embarassed to admit even to himself how much better it feels to be able to extend his tail freely and get those ill fitting clothes off his fine coat of fur.

But simply being out of any clothes is not enough. He has to hide these now useless clothes. The utility belt and birdarangs could be dangerous. Robin starts kicking away with his stronger back legs and starts a hole. He's slightly embarrassed at how natural these doggy motions prove to be for him. He continues his frantic digging with his front paws and then drags all his uniform to the little hole and kicks the dirt in on top of it.

"Now what?" he mumbled to himself in his still human voice.

First of all, he watches Red X groan and get slowly to his feet. Robin the german shepherd looks to the parking lot entrance hoping that the police will arrive. Maybe they'd be able to deal with him in Red X's groggy condition. But they don't arrive right away and Red X gathers his wits and stumbles off around the other side of the building. Robin feels the pull of strong instinct to chase after Red X and nip at him, to sink all those sharp teeth into that black spandex covered butt. He starts to feel the pull of chasing Red X, of running after him like one dog in a pack and then bringing him down. He drools on the ground by his front paws. With a sigh of some effort, he resists it.

There are all sorts of impulses to resist. Though his conscious mind was still his human one, all his sensory inputs are canine. The sun shines pleasantly on his shiny brown/black coat. Watching Red X get away he rubs the side of his dog butt on a sapling and notices that it feels good. It seems that he can smell everything within a hundred yards and every single smell pulls him in a different direction. Cat? Hatred. Attack!

A car with a bad catalytic converter? Discomfort. Flee.

The stick from what was a corn dog? Mmmm. Seek.

And he felt endless curiosity about the tiny whisps of smells that he could detect. He found himself sniffing away at the ground much of the time. And he found himself reacting oddly to people who walked past. His first instinct was fearful. He did not have Teen Titan Robin's instinctive confidence. He felt insecurity and deference toward humans. And . . . he sniffed at the air. Hmmm. Somewhere, not too far away, there was a bitch in heat.

Robin shook his head. Oh my god! No way! I'm human and I'm gonna be human again soon. But, what now? But the question is answered in the short term in just a moment when the police arrive on the scene. Robin watches them, just a dog for all anybody knows, as they dust the locks and door for prints and the cases inside. He shakes his dog head. Red X wouldn't be so dumb as to leave prints, guys! God. Finally, at 9 a.m. A smallish elderly man arrives along with some other people. The others seem to be the employees who run the register and stand guard during the day and whatnot. But the police address the old man as some sort of professor. This piques Robin's interest. The museum director! He remembers that this guy is the museaum director. Robin picks up the ring in his big dog mouth and approaches the front door where a sign says something about a special week of ancient artifacts including wiccan and antiquities.

Robin watches carefully from outside the door. The employees and cops don't seem to pay any attention to the area to the left of the door. So, Robin the dog wonder sneaks in the door right after a cop leaves and sees a way to sneak through most of the museum on that side. He hides his dog self behind one display while a cop and an employee go by. Then he moves up to another hiding place on one side of the next one while two more employees pass. The whole four legged thing is pretty natural already. At last, he manages to dash into the old man's office at the end of the museum. He pushes the door closed behind himself with a swish of his dog hips. He drops the ring, covered in his canine saliva, onto the man's desk.

"Professor? I have to talk to you? You-you are a professor, aren't you?"

The white haired old man was rummaging around behind his desk. "Professor of anthropology with a specialty in certain antiquities."

"Like the special ring?"

"Oh which one?"

"This one!" said Robin with exasperation that only grew when the professor noticed him but said nothing and started examining the ring after wiping it with a tissue.

"Professor! I'm a dog!"

"Oh, uh, yes, and quite a handsome one. Look at your fine coat," he said and patted Robin's head.

"Professor!" Robin hated the belittling gesture and even more that it felt good to have his furry head petted. "Isn't it strange to you that a dog is talking to you?"

"I suppose."

"You suppose! Professor! I've gotta get out of this!"

"You don't want to be a dog?"

"Of course not!"

"Oh. You're quite a fine looking dog."

"Professor!" Robin pleaded then sighed in frustration at the doddering old fool. Then, before going on, he tended to those furs down there that had somehow gotten rubbed the wrong way. Using his tremendous new flexibility, Robin stretched as far as he could, flicked out his long tongue and applied a nice coat of saliva over the fur on his balls. Ahhhhhh! That's better. He straightened up and then his warm new chocolate brown eyes went wide with horror.

"Oh god. What'd I just do?" he moaned.

"You licked your-"

"I know what I did professor!" snapped Robin the german shepherd angrily. "But I shouldn't be doing that. I'm a boy. I-I'm supposed to be a teenage boy. I'm Robin from the Teen Titans. Kid Flash and I stopped a guy named Red X from robbing your museum early this morning. All the stuff he'd stolen went flying during the fight and this stupid ring landed between my cape and my collar. When I read the inscription on the inside, this happened."

"Ahhh. Robin. Yes. You were here after the false alarm. Black hair with the red and green uniform, yes?"

"Yes!" said Robin with exasperation.

"Natural born shape shifter."

"What?"

"You are."

"You must mean my teammate, Beast Boy, the green skinned one."

"Oh no. You. Your smallish nose of just a certain shape, face of a certain shape. Ears just a certain shape. Body just a certain size and shape. I knew you'd be susceptible to the Borgia ring from the first display. You couldn't design a boy as a better receptor of energies from-"

"Professor! Please! How do I get out of this?"

"Well, you should expect random repeating of your present condition until you break the spell or someone else becomes the target of its energies."

"What! How do I do that?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure. It might be broken by a brave deed as a dog. Or, it might be with you for the rest of your life. Again, someone else could make himself the target, hmmm, but I wouldn't count on that one."

Robin grumbled.

The rest of my life! Please no! This guy's a bitsoft in the head. Raven. That's who he needed. He would get to Titans Tower and see what Raven could do. This was her game, right? Spells and sorcery.

"Professor? Could you just do one thing for me? Could you tie something around my neck so that I can carry that ring with me without having to keep it in my-my big dog mouth?"

The professor said he would be glad to help and found a leather strap holding some book together in a bundle. He wrapped it around the neck of the once Boy Wonder and ran it throught the ring before tying it. He then walked Robin out the museum doors past all the employees and cops. Robin felt humiliated and ridiculous being only knee high on the little old man and naked but fur covered.

But now he was on his way.


	2. My dog Robbie

Robin, the leader of the Teen Titans was now completely a dog. He was physically a not quite full grown german shepherd, about as physically mature as 16 year old Robin had been. His body was covered in black and brown fur and his eyes, formerly bright blue behind his seldom removed mask, were now a warm chocolate brown and visible to anyone who passed him. At least, they would have beenvisible if he wasn't so often bent over with his long nose to the ground sniffing away at the myriad scents he could now detect.

Though Robin still had his teen super hero mind, he found that all his senses were canine. They sent stimulus after stimulus that demanded to be acted on as a dog would, unless his conscious mind overrode it. He found himself instinctively doing all sorts of things as a dog would do them without thinking at all of what action he was taking. He scratched himself. He sniffed. He would formerly have used a bathroom but now just squatted in the bushes at the side of the road. He trotted along on his four legs to a busy intersection and found himself sniffing the butt of some junior high kid before suddenly realizing what he was doing and backing away in shock then sprinting across the street. He was amazed at all the smells he now realized were there and what a pull they exerted on him to investigate them. Must be part of evolved dog behavior, he told himself. Because he would trot along a sidewalk and smelled wisps of a dozen different things and find himself mesmerized by one of them and veering off his path to follow it. The duration of smells was fascinating. Outside a club he could pick up a faint trail of beer, off someone's clothes or breath or something from the night before. Maybe it was a trail of just a few molecules here and there remaining. But he could detect it. Amazing.

It was one of these frustratingly diverting canine fixations that determined the rest of the day for Robin the german shepherd. He was trotting along a street he knew, following the route he'd figured out in his head to get back to the bay from the museum, when he sniffed a cat. He felt himself overcome with an urge to chase, to fight. He could just imagine clamping his teeth around this frigging calico! He followed the scent through a hedge, around a house and wherever it took him, he didn't really keep track of where. He was only sniffing with his wet black nose and looking at the ground right in front of him. But suddenly, the cat scent disappeared. Damn! He'd followed it for a few minutes and now it was gone. Did someone pick the cat up in a car or something? What the hell!

Robin looked up from the concrete sidewalk and realized he didn't know this street or this neighborhood of Jump City. It wasn't a bad area. The houses were sort of middle class and reasonably separated with okay lawns. He just didn't know where this was. He looked around trying to figure out just where he stood on his four legs.

"Damn! How'm I gonna get back to the Tower in time for Raven to turn me back and see Starfire tonight if I get lost?" he muttered.

But he soon had bigger problems than canine punctuality. As he stood looking around on a quiet street corner, a white truck approached. Robin, the german shepherd paid no attention to it till it was almost beside him. Then he noticed the lettering on the side.

JUMP CITY DOG CATCHER.

Dog catcher! What the hell? I haven't seen a dog catcher in years. Now this happens to me and what's the first City employee I see? Aaarrrrggghhhh!

Robin sprinted as fast as he could and amazed himself at how quickly he bolted across the street and then through two yards. He could hear the truck pealing out behind him and trying to follow and he could hear the dog catcher himself swearing at him.

Momentarily out of sight, he looked frantically around for a route of final escape. But there seemed to be uninterrupted fences behind all the houses across the street. The dog catcher's truck careened around a corner and was coming straight for him. What to do? What to do?

"Hey, boy!" a kid's voice called out to Robin. "C'mere boy! C'mere!"

Not knowing what else to do, Robin obeyed and jogged over to a boy in the next yard, a freckle faced red haired boy perhaps 6 years old in jeans t-shirt and sneakers. Robin walked up to the boy and endured his his jackhammer patting of his furry head.

"Jeez kid, ease up!" he muttered under his breath. Then his big brown eyes went wide. Shit. What've I done?

But the boy was enough of a little kid that the idea of a talking dog didn't seem ridiculous to him. When a dog spoke . . . it was conversation, like any other talking. Nothing special.

"Sorry . . . um, say, what's your name, boy?" said the boy now hugging Robin uncomfortably around his neck, squeezing the ring on the leather strap that probably looked like a collar.

"Um, Robby. My name's Robby."

"Wanna be my dog, Robby?" chirped the boy and then he adopted a somber tone. "Our last dog got . . sick."

The dog catcher truck screeched to a halt at the curb in front of them.

"Yeah, sure. I'm your dog."

The dog catcher, a man in a white outfit with a net in one hand and a sort of paintball looking gun, but probably with tranquilizer darts instead of paint balls in the other advanced off the sidewalk.

"You know that dog, kid?"

"Sure Mister!" the boy half laughed. "It's my dog, Robby!"

"That's your dog?"

The boy nodded the extra emphatic way that little boys do. "Isn't he neat?"

Robin sat on his hind legs and watched the dog catcher look with such disappointment at them. He stuck his tongue out at the dog catcher, whose eyes bugged out.

"Jesus. Almost looks like that dog's . . . nah! Can't be."

The befuddled dog catcher went off and the boy hugged Robin some more.

"Jeez, kid. Enough with the hugs already."

"Oh boy, a talking dog!"

"Look, kid. I'm not really a dog. I'm a boy. I-I just got bewitched, got hit with this spell."

"Well, you're my dog for now. Come on! Let's go to the park, Robby!"

Robin grumbled. I don't have time for this. But the dog catcher's truck was still at the curb. Oh, allright! I'll play along. Sigh.

Robin followed the boy to the front door of the house where the boy yelled inside. "I'm going to the park with Robby!" To Robin's surprise, he heard the voice of the boy's mother saying something about fine but be back for dinner. The boy ran from the door and across the yard.

"Come on, boy!"

Robin shook his german shepherd head and sighed. I can't believe this is what I'm reduced to. Whatever. He easily trotted along beside the boy as they traveled a circuitous route to a nearby park, all lawn and a few leafy stands of trees around a pond.

"Here we are, Robby!" declared the boy at nearly the top of his lungs from the edge of it.

"Do you have a friend or know someone else named Robby?" asked Robin the dog.

"Yup. My older cousin down the street's named Rob and I call him Robby sometimes, too, just like you." The boy saw the dog nod slowly. That's why his mom was okay with it, thought Robin.

He followed the boy into the park where the boy suddenly reached down, grabbed a stick and threw it as far as he could.

"Fetch it, boy!"

Robin only stared at the boy's ridiculously excited face.

"You're kidding right?"

"Fetch it, Robby!"

"I told you, kid. I'm really a boy. I'm not fetching anything."

"Ya gotta while you're a dog!" reasoned the boy.

"Uh . . . no."

"Oh, come on, Robby! Do some tricks!"

"Kid!" Robin grumbled looking downward. "I told you! I'm a boy not a dog. I am not going to do tricks for you."

"What if I gave you dog treats?" He held a light brown, bone shaped biscuit in front of Robin's nose. Robin wanted to tell the kid off right away but . . . it smelled so good. Damn, the fake little biscuit smelled so good And he was hungry. This must be kind of how it was for KF, always being so hungry. But, no! No! I'm not gonna act like a stupid trained dog.

But he sniffed with his wet black nose and the smell was so powerful. Smells had never been this powerful as a human, not nearly. It was mesmerizing. He not only couldn't tell the boy to forget about it. He could barely form that thought in his mind. His mind was human, but it was wired to canine senses and canine senses were usually obeyed. Robin edged his pointy muzzle over and opened his mouth just enough to gobble the dog treat off the boy's hand.

"Yay! Robby!"

"Alright, alright! I'll do some tricks." he said and sprinted off and retrieved the stick the boy had thrown. And he retrieved it again, and again, and again and . . . He would never have admitted it but there was a certain visceral pleasure in using the athletic gifts he had in this new dog body. Even other onlookers were impressed with him. A couple of hot girls came over and patted him. He was even less likely to admit that it felt pretty good to have his furry new body petted. His tailed wagged vigorously back and forth.

"Is your dog a boy dog or a girl dog?" one of the girls asked.

The boy lifted Robin's tail showing his fur covered balls to the two girls. Robin silently fumed but not for long. An older kid with some kind of whippet terrier came onto the big lawn where he'd been fetching the stick and started a game of frisbee fetch with the terrier. Robin and the boy watched the impressive display by the terrier for a minte.

"Come on Robby! Let's show 'em how to do it!"

The kid tried to throw the frisbee out for Robin to catch but was erratic at it. Half his throws ended up rolling along the lawn. One of the hot girls took over for him. She threw the frisbee fifty feet out. Robin sprinted out for it, leaped and caught it in his long dog muzzle. He trotted back to the girl with it, surprised at how an instinct to chase had kicked in when he ran for the frisbee. He chased the frisbee again and again, trying to match the antics of the smaller terrier. Finally, he had a sort of a doggy showdown with the terrier. The boy who was the terrier's master came over to where the girls and Robin's boy was and they agreed that he would throw the frisbee out and they would see which dog would get it. The kid who owned the terrier figured he would beat the german shepherd. But Robin was too wily. He wasn't quite as quick as the terrier but started early to make up for it and judged the flight of the frisbees better. To top it off, he easily beat the terrier to the couple frisbees thrown very high. Robin used his skills at basketball to box out the smaller dog, backing his bigger butt into the other dog and even hitting him, whackwhackwhack, across the face with his tail. Finally, the contest was over and Robby the german shepherd was greeted like a conquering hero by the two hot girls and the six year old boy.

"He can talk, too!" the boy told the two girls. They rolled their eyes.

"No really! Show 'em Robbie!"

Robin just looked at the girls with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and gave a flea scratch to his side. The boy pulled him aside from them.

"Why didn't you talk, Robbie?"

"Kid! I'm might turn back into a boy at any moment. I don't need more attention."

The girls were calling to him now. "Come here, Robbie. Come on boy!"

"Go on, Robbie! Those girls wanna pet you!"

"Kid! I'm 16 years old. I've got a girlfriend. I-"

"What kind of dog is she? A collie like that one?" he said pointing to a dog part way across the lawn of the park.

"She's not a dog, kid! I don't care how hot looking that collie is, I don't have any . . interest . . in . . . "

Oh god! It's true! That collie is hot. I could give her some german shepherd lovin' easy. Robin trotted resignedly over to the two girls. They petted him all over, finishing with him on his back, his belly warmed by the sun and their frequent petting. He admitted to himself that this dog gig had some upsides to it, but he was still glad to be taken "home" by the boy. But the boy locked him up in his room and Robin spent the early evening hours completely exasperated that he was stuck there. He wanted to get out of there, to do something to alert the boy's parents, who hadn't seen him enter, but had only his human voice. He tried scratching at the door but no one seemed to notice. He tried to get a window open to get out that way but didn't have either the strength or manual dexterity to do it. Finally, with the skies already dark outside, the boy finally came back to the room. Robin jumped on him.

"Listen, kid! I might be a fricking dog right now but if the two of us had a throw down, I'd still win. Let me the hell out of here, now!"

"Okay, okay. Just let me-"

"Now! Kid, now!"

Robin calmed down a bit when the boy started leading him out through the house. He walked him out through the kitchen and into the garage but then turned and went back to the door while Robin continued toward the door out of the garage.

"Hey!"

"Come on, Robby!" said the boy from the kitchen door. "You can sleep here in your dog basketover there!", urged the freckle faced boy in his scratchy voice, pointing to a large wicker basket, sort of a quarter sphere lined with blankets. Robin, the german shepherd cursed at the boy. He demanded that the boy let him out. But the boy wouldn't.

"Go on boy! Sleep right there. It's a good bed for a dog."

Robin groaned. "Kid. I could become a boy again any minute. I'm not lying down in your stupid little dog bed."

The boy seemed insulted. His eyes watered. Robin, the german shepherd sighedwhat choice did he have for the moment he couldn't swim across the bay in the dark anyway.

"Alright. Alright." He stepped forward and gingerly set himself down atop the thick blankets. The boy stepped into the garage and patted him several times. And Robin had to admit that it was pretty comfortable for a dog. The boy rushed off and returned a minute later with a bowl full of meat byproducts. Dog food.

"Look what I gotcha, boy! It's left over from our dog before you."

"You're kidding, right? I am not eating dog food. I told ya. I'm not really a dog."

"You sure look like one."

"Temporary."

"And ya smell like one."

"Temporary. Speaking of which, you don't smell so great either."

"Ya chased frisbees just like one."

"Nothin' better to do."

"Ya thought that collie was real pretty."

"Um . . . let's skip that one."

"Okay. Um . . you licked yourself like one."

"Lets, uh, let's skip that one, too."

The boy laughed then rushed forward and hugged his new dog, Robby. Robin watched the boy go and tried to figure what to do. But his thoughts became increasingly slow. After all, it really had been a whirlwind of a day physically, what with being chased and all that fetching and playing frisbee. He tried to sit perfectly straight in a regal dog pose. But he slouched more and more till finally his long muzzle rested on his front paws. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

The next morning, Mrs. Keller opened the door from the kitchen into the garage. She hadn't hit the Dunkin Donuts yet for her coffee and was still not quite awake. It took a few seconds for the reality of the naked black haired teenage boy sleeping in their dog basket to fully register in her head. There was a slender, athletic looking black haired boy, naked, curled into a tight fetal position, the crack of his ass toward her, lying in their dog basket. There was a-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, the piercing shriek almost getting louder in the enclosed garage. The boy jumped up instantly looking for just a moment at the almost empty dog dish and basket. He took one step toward her.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she gave another ten second shriek at the sight of the naked boy and his waking erection.

The boy's expression went from seeming almost concerned for her to panic then a sort of panic modified by some kind of feeling of relief about something.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she screamed again at the boy somehow thinking something in this situation was worth a slight smile.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she screamed once more and he reached for his penis with both hands.

"I'm-I'm sorry. Um, seniors, seniors did this to-to me!" he pleaded but seeing that she was readying yet another piercing scream, ran to the regular door at the garage entrance and ran, buck naked out into a middle class suburb of Jump City in the morning commute hour.

And as he runs away through neighboring yards, holding at least one hand over his penis at all times, he remembers that the bowl next to the basket was empty when he woke up but had been half full when he got there.

"Ugh. I ate dog food!"

The Jump City Police were befuddled afterward. There had been a dozen calls of some bare ass dark haired kid sprinting through residential neighborhoods but they couldn't catch him. Calls just kept coming in. "I just saw some perv kid run through my neighborhood fucking naked!" "You won't believe this but a naked kid, a dark haired teenage kid without a thing on just ran through the supermarket parking lot at the corner of main and elm!" The cops even got sight of him a few times. But the kid somehow got away. It didn't seem possible. The kid would've had to go right up the side of a building they thought, at one point, to get away. But get away he somehow did. An hour and a half later, a still naked Robin stepped into the water across the bay from Titans Tower. It was a nearly impossible swim considering tides and currents alone, never mind the cold water. But he knew that Red X had made that swim. He had to make it. A half hour later, with barely any energy left, he pulled himself up onto the rocks of the island, the ring still ona leather strap around his throatand made his way to the front door. The retinal scanner and hand scanner recognized him and he was in. With his characteristic stealth, he made his way to his room and no one was the wiser.

His first order of business was to talk to Starfire. He said that he'd been gone chasing Red X. He apologized profusely and his Tameranian girlfriend immediately forgave him and covered his face with kisses. He kissed her and took her hand leading her to her room. She preferred to make out in her room. But, she didn't get all her preferences. An hour later, Starfire protested, "But Robin! I thought you always wanted to look me in the eyes when you . . . OH!"

He had another episode that afternoon. He was checking for the 10th time to see if Raven could be approached. She'd left word that she was doing some sort of meditation that could actually be dangerous if interrupted. He desperately wanted to speak to her but couldn't. She was going to send a signal on her Titans communicator as soon as she was available again. Robin checked at the communications center. It still listed her status as unavailable. Damn.

But just as he slammed his fist down on the console, he started to notice that he could detect new scents. The cleaning fluid used on the console. Brimstone from whenever Raven had been there last. That odd smell that was Beast Boy. Neutrogena? Yes. That was neutrogena. That was Kid Flash's soap. And then he realized what was happening.

"See ya later," he said to Beast Boy and ran back to his room. By the time he got to his door, he could barely work the nob with his half paw hands. He pulled his uniform off and watched the last fraction of his transformation into a german shepherd in the mirror of his bathroom. But just an hour later, with no warning whatsoever, he turned back into human Robin.

At the same time,Speedy, teen hero super archer piloted the Titans East jet westward zigzagging playfully between mountain peaks, treating them as an opportunity for a slalom run. Through the mountain range, he grinned at how easily he accomplished it. On to Titans Tower. What to do, what to do before landing? Hmmm. I should check on any open calls or cases, loose threads that I could tie up before landing. I'm at least twenty minutes early thanks to running close to the danger zone all through the midwest.

He checked the log of calls scrolling down the list to . . . hmmm, what's this? A call from Robin's communicator, message garbled and no subsequent checkoff by his BoyWondership to explain. Allright. Hehe. Be good to catch him in not dotting every "I" and crossing every "T", Mr. Control freak of the Teen Titans. Let's see. Where was it? Jump Boulevard . . outside the Museum of Rare Antiquities.

Speedy landed the Titans East plane in the half empty parking lot using the vertical takeoff and landing capability and proceeded on in to the museum. He asked a guard to speak to someone in charge and was directed to a little white haired man in a back office.

"Excuse me, sir, my name's Speedy. I'm with Titans East. I'm sorry to bother you but I've got an electronic record of a call from here from Robin of the Teen Titans but no record of what happened with the case after that."

"Oh yes, Robin."

"The Boy Wonder, they call him," added Speedy with a smile.

"Yes, yes, I've heard that. Well, apparently he and the . . . you said you call yourself Speedy?"

"Yeah, that's my hero name."

"But the other boy . . um, his hair is orange, brighter than yours and longer and he's very very fast, um . . "

"Kid Flash, sir."

"Ah yes! That's it! Kid Flash! Marvelously athletic looking. And quite striking. My granddaughter is quite a fan of his, imagines herself to be in a sort of relationship with him-"

What a coincidence! So do I smiled Speedy.

"-Apparently your Robin-"

"The Boy Wonder!"

". . yes, the-the boy wonder. Robin and Kid Flash stopped an attempted robbery of the museum by a thief called Red X. The-the thief escaped but all our jewels and various properties were recovered."

"You have everything back? Well okay then," said Speedy and he turned to go.

"Except, of course, for the ring that activated Robin's latent shape shifting."

Speedy stopped in mid turn. He spun back around.

"Excuse me? What did you say?"

"The Borgia ring that turned him into a dog. He's got it. I'm not sure if he's a boy or a dog right now but he's got it for protective keeping. I'm-I'm sure we'll get it back. He promised."

"What!" Speedy half laughed half shouted. "You're telling me that Robin . . the-the Boy Wonder turned into a . . dog?"

"Finest german shepherd you ever saw. Lustrous coat, beautiful markings, excellent muzzle. If he entered himself in a dog show, I'm sure he'd win. But that would be cheating, wouldn't it? He could, presumably, respond to commands better with his human mind in his dog body. But, anyway, he-he was quite unhappy about it. He had apparently had an itch at the fur of his scrotum and became quite upset that he just naturally licked himself there."

Speedy could barely contain his glee. Robby boy chowing down on dog food! Robby boy on a leash! Robby boy going to obedience school! Ha! No more looking down your nose at me because I want all kinds of action. Look down your long pointy muzzle . . dog wonder! And he criticizes me for jokingly using the term 'bitches'!

"So, you say that Robin didn't like being a dog?" asked Speedy through the hand he had to throw over his mouth to camouflage his smile.

"No. He didn't want to even consider the-the upside of his new circumstance. He was indignant that he was even temporarily not a boy."

"He . . he said this? He spoke?"

"Oh yes. He was completely a dog in every other physical way, as I say, a magnificent one, but he could speak humanly as well as bark."

"Where did he go?"

"Well, I tied the ring around his neck on a string and he left. I'm not sure where he went. The spell that goes with the ring causes random recurrence of his being a dog until he does something heroic, as a dog, or someone else directs the spells effects to himself."

"Why does he need to keep the ring, sir?" asked an enthusiastic Speedy.

"Well, according to the legends, the spell is already in him. He'll just keep going back and forth from dog to boy at random intervals, but reading the inscription from the ring would instantly turn him into a dog if he was a boy at that moment. If we'd left it in the display, someone on the staff simply picking it up and reading the inscription would make him a canine wherever he is."

"Really? That's fascinating. So, if someone got hold of that ring they could just keep reading the inscription and Robin would be stuck as a dog."

"Well, perhaps. There's some conjecture that the spell sender could be sensitized to it as well but no one's really sure."

Speedy shook the man's hand. "Well, thank you for your time, sir. I'm just glad to hear that nothing's been stolen." he said and hurried back to his plane to head on over to Titans Tower.


	3. Speedy on the make

Though Robin had quickly turned back into a human after only an hour spent as a dog again, his second canine transformation made him feel much worse than the first. It drove home the professor's words that his status, human or canine, would be random. The damn spell would capriciously give him a tail and cover him with fur at intervals he couldn't determine.

He'd come so far with Kid Flash's help and the romantic attentions of Starfire in cutting back on his 'batman attitude' as Kid Flash had sometimes called it. He was a lot less obsessed with control. But not controlling his own body and whether he wasa boy or a dog made him acutely conscious of every issue of control. It made him intensely interested in having control of everything else, when he couldn't control the basic nature of his life. He was immediately returnedto his worst control obsessed behavior of the past. In the Combat Simulations room hebossed Cyborg around telling how he should be using his new laser cannon.

Fourteen floors up, Speedy came down from the roof landing pad. The first thing he didwas to figure out where Robin was. Bubbly Starfire told him that he was down in the combat simulations room at the request of Cyborg to help him wth calibrating a new laser cannon. Speedy waited a minute more in the great room and then slowly migrated from there to the communications center to the kitchen and then out to the hallway and down to the 13th floor where everyone's quarters were without saying a word. A little play with the door, they were, after all, the same kind of doors they had at the Titans East tower, and he was inside Robin's room. Speedy was careful to not disturb anything but went through the whole room in a matter of minutes. He was an expert. It wasn't there. The ring wasn't there. Speedy slipped out and went back up to the great room a few minutes before Cyborg and Robin returned. He said hellos to them and, seeing Robin, the answer immediately occurred to him. Utility belt! Of course! He's carrying it with him.

Speedy played it nonchalant, hanging around the great room for a while talking with Starfire. She was hot. But, after a half hour, Jinx entered. Speedy's eyes bugged out.

Wow.

His mind starting running wild with the possibilities. Color the hair . . some contacts . . spray on a light tan . . and she could be the hottest piece of ass on the catwalk. Perfect round little tits, little half apple breasts. Mmmmm! And that coochie! One of those really in shape girls who was all taut curves around there. Tight thighs, flat stomach transitioning to a curve underneath. Man! You see that tight surface there, you can't help but think about ramming it in there. Oh yeah baby. Ditch the loose black goth lace baby. Show it! Everyone'll like it! Everyone will ask to come in. Mmmm. Yes. He tried to imagine being atop her. She'd fight, wouldn't she? She'd spit and bite and resist a bit even though she wanted it but then start kissing and biting some more, in the good way, and pull me in. She'd be that kind, the kind who was all over a guy's body, squeezing your buns and grabbing your johnson in her hands. Type who can't get enough. Oh yeah.

But like the sound of a needle scratching across a record, his reveries were interrupted. It was the look on her face. Love. Pure love. Deep, lustful love. She was completely gone. Completely. She was impossible. She was looking at him coming down the hall toward her talking to Robin. She would do anything for him, and nothing of that sort, for anyone else. She was looking at Kid Flash.

Speedy could have been crestfallen at this discovery. Instead, he just shifted his interest to Kid Flash. No wonder she was hot for him. Even the way he walks down the hall is hot, like he weighs five pounds or something, so much spring in his step and, hehe, look at that package! His pulse quickened just as much at the sight of him as at the sight of her. He gave her the same adoring look. Damn! . . . Damn!Damn!Damn!

Sigh.

No! Too bad. Not giving up this time. Maybe there's a way somehow. Maybe I can figure out something. Sometimes there are ways to unlock the puzzles of peoples' sexual interests.

Speedy stared at him from behind as he spoke to Jinx. That's got to be the most fantastic ass on the planet. How does he ever find a pair of pants that fit his little waist and those buns at the same time? Speedy imagined having stripped him and then pressing them apart with the heel of one hand to each one. How did he ever keep his secret identity? Couldn't you just look at that ass and realize that he must be Kid Flash? Must be two inches deeper than even that gymnast kid. God-damn! And that face! Speedy forced a deep breath. Concentrate. Concentrate. Try to find an angle. Try to find an angle. Sometimes it seems impossible but it isn't. Like those gymnasts.

Speedy smirked remembering his conquests the night of the wake for Kid Flash's Aunt Iris. From the moment that he learned that the 16-18 year old boys and girls national gymnastics championship contestants were staying at the same Wayne Corp. owned hotel as all the heroes, he knew he had to. And not just any of them. Only the best. Only the winners, the champions. A question here. An inquiry there. A little misdirection to distract the guy at the front desk and get room numbers. A few dollars to the guys in room service. Presto, he was bringing a tray up to the girl champion in a room service uniform. And, luck of all luck, in her room was the boy champion.

But they weren't getting it on. They weren't even going in that direction. At a glance, Speedy had discerned that he had at least as much interest, probably more in the new red haired room service boy delivering something they hadn't even ordered. He would be easy, the unacknowledged type just dying to express the real him. Bursting with energy but afraid to express it as the sort of affection that he really felt. That was obvious. But she was another thing entirely. Her cutting remarks to the boy champion, her interest in him but at the same time desire to knock him, to humiliate him. The boy gymnast champion didn't get it. He wasn't really interested. He just thought he should be. Wanted to do what was expected. Just a little plain vanilla sex, please. But she wanted to dominate and humiliate. She would never serve vanilla. He didn't get it. Speedy did. It should have been captured on camera and taught in a course on seduction, decided Speedy. Reeling them both in at once. Ahhh! What a triumph! A few words to calm the waters without favoring either party. A little show of gymnastics, jumping from their balcony to the one above and then around to others and back. Make up a story. I had to deliver like this once. They wouldn't answer and I had to get their stuff to them or I'd be fired. A little more jumping around. Let him see my tight butt in my tight room service uniform a bit. Then a play for her that she rebuffs with a slap and a smirk at her right afterward. No whimpering retreat, but acceptance that that was the game. Fire lit. The next part was tricky, getting them both to go forward without antagonizing one by playing to the other. It also turned out to mean accepting being the meat in a gymnast sandwich. No big deal except the boy champion was big, especially for five eight. And not experienced in using it. Ouch. Hurt just to think of it. But it worked to kind of turn her on. She liked seeing that the boy who got her was being brought down at the same time. That unavoidable whimper while pulling her close had made her melt. She positively adored every involuntary grunt at what was happening on the other side, slapping his butt and urging him on to do me harder. Oh yeah. But, I did unto others as they were doing unto me. Well, not quite. She was facing me. Speedy smirked. Man did she love it when I gave it to him afterward. Ha! So did he, hyperflexible little freak.

Kid Flash may be impossible, but I've gotta try. I've gotta! Look at him. Not a spec of fat, not an ounce, anywhere and that uniform shows it all. Excellent deltoids, nice shoulders tapering down to a teeny tiny waist and then those buns jutting out behind him. What a shape. There's not another boy on earth shaped quite like that. A-fucking-mazing. I could almost see it when I first met him three years ago. He could be the fuck of a lifetime, getting between those buns and pounding that rookie starfish. Can just hear him whimpering! Hehehe. And then enjoying himself desptite himself.

Oh yeah.

"How 'bout some instruction, Kid Flash?"

"Instruction in what?"

"Fighting."

"Robin's been teaching me jeet kune do. I'm only so-so. And I've been working on my boxing a bit."

"All the expected stuff."

"Huh?"

"All the expected stuff, pretty boy. Everybody boxes and does martial arts. But is that the only fighting you've ever had to do?"

"I don't get you?"

"You've never been in a sort of chaotic scrum where you were essentially wrestling with someone?"

"Well, yeah, sure. I usually just tried to get out of those situations ASAP. I mean, when I started as a hero, I didn't even crack 100 pounds and I'm just approaching one fifty now. Wrestling with a Grodd or somebody isn't the way I should fight."

"But don't you want to be better at it, for when it does come up?"

Kid Flash shrugged. "Sure."

"Come on down to Com Sims with me. I'll teach you some moves, not phony ass bullshit wrestling but real college style. There's some useful stuff in it."

Kid Flash paused. "Okay," he finally said. He was reluctant to quickly agree to anything with Speedy. But this was certainly a better, more reasonable Speedy than even the last time or two he'd met him. And it was miles better than when he first met him. He couldn't forget that.


	4. Carrot tops meet

Kid Flash first met Speedy when he was just 12 years and 2 months old. He'd been a super hero speedster for 6 months. And the speedforce that infused his body had subtly and in some ways not so subtly reshaped it. Wally West stood five foot four inches tall, just a bit taller than average for a sixth grade boy but not outrageously so. What was outrageous was Wally West's physical condition. He'd been in excellent shape before being drenched with shelves of powerful chemicals and shot through with a skyful of electricity. Afterward, he had to hide himself. The giant, oversized pants and shirts given to him by Aunt Iris had been absolutely necessary to hide hissecret identity.

His five foot four inches of body only weighed a hundred and three pounds but even under the shirt and chinos he'd been wearing, other kids were noticing. They couldn't help but notice. Wally had a tiny 18 inch waist and a pair of well muscled, wide, for a hundred four pounder, shoulders above them. Eight stomach muscle squares would've been visible if he'd ever let anyone see him with his shirt off. His calf muscles had become tremendous for such a slender boy and his thighs, while not thick seen from the front had also added muscle front to back. The biggest change after becoming a Flash had been his rear end. Wally'd already been proud of his round little butt. Everyone said that that was what girls really liked, right? He was vaguely aware that the girls were quite impressed with him. Then he became Kid Flash. After just a week of super speed sprinting he felt like he was about to burst out of the rear seam of all his pants. Too much of a good thing. He examined himself in the mirror in his tiny room in the middle of the night. He sighed. Nobody made pants expecting a skinny boy to have a butt like that. His front side wasn't helping any, either. Maybe it was natural growth. He couldn't figure why the speedforce would do this to him. That didn't make any sense. You couldn't be faster with one like that instead of a normal size one. But, as with all his other changes, he had to accept that that was just how he was.

He sighed. He didn't mind. His modified new body felt great. It felt great 24/7. Just walking felt great. And he felt that his gait had subtly changed. His more powerful, but still slender legs and rear made a slightly different walk seem more natural. The spring in his step was amazing. It was faintly intoxicating. And when he ran! When he ran, he scorched the roads with the super speed turnover of his long strides. It was such a joy, just running. It filled him with a mild sort of euphoria to sprint across the landscape as only a Flash could. It almost disappointed him when he had to slow down for whatever reason. And when he did have to slow down, or stop and talk to people, well, squeezed into his new Kid Flash uniform, he felt intensely self-consciousin his red and yellow second skin of a uniform. Running was one thing. He was just a blur running but standing still, especially in front of girls! At first, he routinely blushed as red as the bottom half of his uniform to be standing there showing his butt like that and to have the front of his uniform showing him like that.

Embarassing.

Even if they had no idea who he really was, even if they'd never think that giant clothes and knit hat wearing Wally was the supercharged slender runner with the almost stylized shape in front of them, he felt intensely self conscious about how visible his body was.

It didn't help, either, when he found out that the odd jock that Flash had given him, with one strap instead of two was called a dance belt and was what male ballet dancers wore. Wally's didn't yank up his equipment like theirs did but he was quite embarassed just to be wearing the same thing as ballet dancers, even if his was made of scarlet Flash suit material.

Wally was also embarassed about what had happened to his appetite. It made him feel like a ridiculous freak. He was a typical slender athletic boy at age eleven and eight months when he'd become Kid Flash. He ate more than seemed likely given how slender he was. His mother treated it as almost a moral failing on his part, not thinking that the metabolism of a nearly 12 year old boy shouldn't be judged by the standards of a 36 year old woman. But the fact that he stayed rail thin, with his 18 inch waist, did his arguing for him. He was obviously not eating too much.

Then he became Kid Flash. The morning after the transformation, Wally was lost in thought about super speed and crime fighting and the fact that his own uncle, Uncle Barry was the Flash. Wally barely noticed what he was doing at the breakfast table and absentmindedly ate the whole box of Cheerios, only noticing when he turned the empty box upside down in search of another bowl's worth. What? Did I really . . ? He went to school, his mind a whirl of Flash's instructions to him to not tell anyone what had happened even though he wanted so badly to tell his pals. He didn't. And his first two classes went fast in his totally distracted state, the bell pulling him out of his swirling thoughts each time. But after that second class, his stomach started to rumble. To his astonishment, he was hungry again. He could barely keep his thoughts on anything else. By the time lunch time rolled around, he thought he might accidentally run to the cafeteria, with his new super speed, to get his famished hands on some sustenance. This after a whole box of cereal that morning! He barely controlled himself to eat at normal speed while he recounted a made up version of his day with his uncle the police scientist. Not quite CSI he told them, spinning a yarn of mundane paper work, somehow leaving out the part where every cell of his body, every chromosome of his DNA was transformed to give him supernatural abilities by a bath of dangerous chemicals and tens of thousands of volts of electricity. Oh yeah. Forgot that part. But listen to all the forms my uncle filled out!

And for a little while, his stomach stopped growling. Then, just a class later, it started again. Hunger. Pure hunger. Hunger like he'd never felt before. Famished, starving hunger. Pictures of starving Ethiopians hunger. Won't you please help, hunger. He bent over face down on his desk. How can I be so hungry again so soon, he wondered. When school ended, he ran home at a pace that he thought was at least plausible and went straight to the kitchen. No one else was home. He chugged down half a carton of orange juice and then ate a half loaf of bread at super speed. He stopped himself there, wondering, anxiously, just what the hell was going on. If he kept eating like this, he'd go from being one of the thinnest boys to the fattest in his class in no time. Ugh. He imagined himself a giant fat ass worse than Harvey Klein or even Jeremy Szott, the two fattest boys in his class. But he looked down at himself. His stomach wasn't even slightly puffed out the way it usually was if he was full. A couple hours later, he couldn't wait to dig in at supper. And then a couple hours after that he was starving again.

A week later, still unable to satisfy his hunger for long but at least satisfied that he not only hadn't become a fatass but was more toned than ever, Kid Flash asked Flash about it at a training session at an abandoned airfield.

"Uncle Barry?"

"Kid Flash!" his mentor responded with irritation. "What'd I tell you? Always address me by my appearance. When I'm in my red suit, I'm Flash. Never Uncle Barry. Never. The same'll go for you. You're Kid Flash in your red and yellow suit. I don't even know who Wally West is. You say he's some kid who lives in this area? Really?"

Kid Flash nodded. "Yes sir, Flash."

"Sorry to snap at you, kiddo. Well, go ahead, Kid Flash. What is it?"

"It's me, Flash. My-my appetite. It's . . . crazy! I counted yesterday. I had seven meals, Flash. Seven! And I've been like that every day. I-I don't understand why I haven't even gained an ounce. Please tell me this is a Flash thing. You-you get hungry like this, too, right?"

"I didn't tell you about it?"

"No, sir."

"Well, yeah, I have to eat six, sometimes seven meals every day, too."

"Oh, man, pffffeeeeewwwww! I thought maybe something was wrong with me. What a relief! But, um . . . why do we have to eat so much, to power our super speed running?"

Flash shook his head. "Not even close. I wondered the same thing when I first became this," he said gesturing with arms out to his whole red suited body. "But, when you run the numbers, even eating six or seven meals a day won't come close to supplying the calories to sprint five thousand miles or whatever we do."

"Then what's going on inside us?"

"I'm not sure. I think the energy for our running is actually provided by the speedforce I told you about. I think we need to eat a lot to somehow allow our bodies to use the speedforce. I think maintaining the interfaces between us, between our molecules and the speedforce is what requires all that energy from all that food."

"But . . Flash. My mom was upset about how much I ate before this. Now, I'm-I'm almost out of control. I go around sneaking food like some-some . . . thief," he said pronouncing the last word with disgust.

Flash sighed and then nodded. "You're going to have to adjust to that feeling of hunger we get, Kid Flash. Be aware of it. Know what's going on inside your body. You can't put it off too long or you don't have super speed. But there's just no way to always be able to get food when you want. Sometimes on Justice League missions I have to go a whole day without eating."

"I think I'd implode or something if I tried to do that."

Flash chuckled and patted his slender protege's back. "You'd be fine, Kid Flash. But I want you to pick one day of the week to eat just 3 meals and to occasionally try to even go an afternoon or morning or a whole day without. You can't let yourself become totally hostage to your new appetite."

Kid Flash nodded dutifully. "Yes sir."

"But most of the time, you've gotta get your six or seven meals," said Flash. "Here," he pulled off a glove and reached under his skin tight scarlet sleeve. He produced three 20 dollar bills and gave them to Kid Flash who put them under the wrist of his uniform.

"Take this and buy yourself some things that'll keep and hide 'em in your room and in your locker at school. I'll help you out on a regular basis."

"Gosh, thanks Flash."

Flash patted the boy's orange haired head. "You're welcome, Kid Flash. And before I forget, I want to let you know that I've got a special treat lined up for you."

"Really? What?"

"I want you to go with me to the watchtower this coming weekend and tell J'onn Jonnz what you saw at that rogues' lair. He may be able to help you recover any information you picked up."

Kid Flash remembered how excited he was. The watchtower! Oh boy! Superman and Batman and Aquaman and Green Lantern and Wonder Woman and all the others!

Oh boy!

He told his parents he was staying at his friend Willie's house that weekend, making up a name so that his whereabouts couldn't be checked, not that they would beanyway, and minutes after that stepped into the teleportation tube in front of Flash.

"Nervous, Kid Flash?"

"A bit. I mean. I don't completely understand how this thing is going to take all my molecules apart, beam 'em up to the satellite and then put me back together."

Flash patted his head and left a hand resting on his protege's shoulder. "Don't worry. I've done it a hundred times. You'll just feel a slight tingle."

It was true. That's all it was. Kid Flash stepped out of the tube up on the Watchtower satellite and grinned at Flash. It worked! He followed Flash around at his side, doing exactly as told. Nothing else was really possible. Kid Flash was in awe. He was in awe at the incredible satellite and all the technology. He wanted to ask Flash a thousand different questions, but held back a river of curiosity out of deference. He was also in awe at the incredible heroes to whom Flash introduced him.

"This is Superman, Kid Flash."

"This is Batman, Kid Flash."

"This is Green Lantern, Kid Flash."

"This is Wonder Woman, Kid Flash."

Kid Flash could barely stammer out greetings to each of them and felt positively lilliputian shaking their hands. Batman, in particular, crushed his hand. He felt more like a six year old than a twelve year old. They were so much stronger, their shoulders were incredible. And he thought he could detect a faintly dismissive reaction in some of them. Especially Batman. He felt embarassed to be wearing a tighter uniform than those hero legends, him the slender twelve year old who weighed 101 pounds. He looked at his shoulders in a reflection off a glass surface and then at Superman walking away from him.

God! He could snap me like a twig.

But he felt great that Flash introduced him to all of them with a definite air of pride that this twelve year old was his protege. And, Flash took him to have lunch in the Watchtower cafeteria before he got to dwell any longer on the disparity in size. On the way, Flash showed him some of the amazing features of the Justice League satellite and Kid Flash's feelings of humiliation were replaced by wonder at the fantastic technology all about him. On the way, Flash spoke to someone whose head, well, the top of his head, was literally on fire, who told him that J'onn Jonnz wouldn't be back to the Watchtower till the next day. Before he went away, he was introduced to Kid Flash as Firestorm. He seemed younger than most all the other heroes and seemed sympathetic to Kid Flash. They went off to the cafeteria and there, Kid Flash met red suited teen super archer Speedy for the first time. He was there with Green Arrow, his mentor and Green Arrow's wife or girlfriend, Kid Flash wasn't sure which it was, Black Canary.

She was terrific. She greeted him so warmly and patted his head and acted like a relative seeing him again at a holiday get together after not seeing him for a year. She was also extremely pretty. Twelve year old Wally West was more than a little interested in girls. Blond, gorgeous Black Canary was not a potential girlfriend but she was so attractive he had to work to keep himself from gawking.

Green Arrow was very affable. He had a distinctive appearance, with his robin hood style outfit and curled blond goatee and, in fact, had an air about him like a rollicking fun loving robin hood sort of guy. His protege, Speedy, was different, though.

He sized Kid Flash up with a smirk and a dismissive sniff. After they were introduced and shook hands, he patted the top of Kid Flash's head to emphasize the difference in their sizes. He was at least 4 inches taller and twenty or twenty five pounds heavier in his red suit with his bow and quiver. He snickered at Kid Flash eating voraciously across the table from him and cast a dismissive glance, usually followed by a slight shake of his head at the red and yellow clad speedster every few minutes as they sat there.

Flash seemed to be very good friends with Green Arrow and Black Canary. They asked about Aunt Iris, though they never said her name in front of Speedy. They kept saying "your wife" to Flash. When lunch was over, they told Speedy to take Kid Flash with him because the three of them were going to go off and take care of some confidential League business.

"Aw, come on! I've gotta babysit the squirt!"

Kid Flash threw mental daggers at him.

"You're not babysitting, Speedy!" Black Canary reproached him. "He's only a little smaller and younger than you. You two may find that you work together for years in the hero business. Why don't you just get to know each other?"

Speedy let out a theatric sigh. "You're sure I won't have to change his diapers or anything like that?" he added then chuckled at Kid Flash's angry expression. "Just kidding. Just kidding."

As they walked through the watchtower, Speedy kept talking as though he'd been there a bunch of times but Kid Flash was skeptical of some of what he said about the watchtower and his own adventures. Some of his offhand remarks about the watchtower technology contradicted what Flash had told him. He kept trying to impress Kid Flash with his stories and he also kept making cutting remarks as they walked around, like "I bet you and the Atom would get along."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because the two of you see eye to eye, squirt! Get it? Eye to eye!"

By the time they went back to their room, Kid Flash was not talking to him. He flopped down on his bed and started reading some of the instructional brochures about how the Watchtower worked.

For a few minutes, Speedy was silent. Then he started again. "Back at the cafeteria, were you trying to put the moves on my mom?" accused Speedy from across the room.

"What! No! Of course not! Black Canary's your mom? I didn't know."

"Yeah, adopted. But, what, she's not good enough to put moves on?"

"No, of . . . I mean . . . " Kid Flash wasn't sure what to say.

"I bet you've never even kissed a girl."

"Ha! You're wrong. I've kissed two different girls."

"I bet. What're their names?"

"I-I can't tell you their names."

"Because they don't exist. I bet you're the kind who's just as interested in boys."

"What!"

"Oh yeah. Trying to show everybody your little butt like that. You-"

"That's not true. I'm a-a Flash-"

"You're not showing off your butt in that suit?"

"Well, maybe I sort of am, but we-we Flashes have to wear really tight suits. I might run a thousand miles on a mission. I can't have my suit bagging or wrinkling or moving on me. I can't have friction."

"Yeah, right. The friction you're concerned about is with other boys," chuckled Speedy.

"Shut up! That's not true. You know why I can't tell you the names of the two girls. I'm not allowed to compromise my secret identity in any way. I'm not gay."

"You're sure?"

"Of course not. I mean, I'm not a-a hater. But no, I never think about guys that way."

"Uh huh," Speedy responded skeptically and looked Kid Flash from head to toe. "You got anything at all on under that second skin?"

Kid Flash sighed. Damn! Did he have to ask?

"I wear a uh mmmmf mmmf," he replied, mumbling the answer.

"A what?"

"A dance belt, alright? A dance belt."

Speedy fell onto his bed laughing. "You wear a dance belt! Like ballet dancers wear! Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

Kid Flash fumed quietly.

"Do some spins and leaps and stuff for me!"

"I'm not a ballet dancer!"

"Hold me closer tiny dan-cer!" Speedy mock sang.

"Cut the crap. I'm not tiny. I'm only a few inches shorter than you and I'm only twelve. And, for the last time, I'm not a ballet dancer!"

"No, you just dress like one. Uh huh. And you don't really like boys either. Oh no. Of course not. Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

Kid Flash advanced on him, his red gloves clenched into fists. "If we weren't in the Watchtower and I hadn't been told by Flash to be on my best behavior . . .!"

Speedy chuckled. "What? What would you do, squirt? Honestly. You're really surprised that you get made fun of for being a ballet dancer?"

"I told you! I'm not a ballet dancer. I just . . wear a dance belt, okay? It's a Flash thing. We have to cut down on friction as much as possible. The-the straps of a jock would be rubbing against the bottom of my buns as I run every step and at mach 5 and running thousands of miles that matters."

Speedy laughed but in a completely different way. This time it was totally friendly and he patted Kid Flash's back as though he was silly to have taken offense because they were, of course, good friends. Speedy kept doing that. Over and over, he would make come cutting remark about Kid Flash's uniform or call him a scrawny little nuthin' or joke, again, that he was gay, or bisexual or a ballet dancer and then laugh in the most affable way when Kid Flash responded angrily. Finally, even after a friendly guffaw, Kid Flash just waved him off.

"No way dude. No way. Apparently, this is some kind of game you get off on, to keep making fun of me. Yeah, I'm the smallest guy in the Watchtower. And my uniform's tight. I'm self-conscious about it. All true. But, move on, for god's sake. Talk to me later tonight if you've grown up."

Speedy started to protest but Kid Flash just raised his hand in a stop gesture. He sped out of the room to the Watchtower library and breathed a sigh of relief to be away from the exasperating teen archer. Flash had told him about this new "library" and he was anxious to try it. According to Flash, it had 10 million volumes. It had 10 million different books. But there wasn't a single bookshelf with even one leather, cloth or soft bound book there, nor any paperbacks. As big as the Watchtower was, the weight of all those books and the space they would have needed was prohibitive.

The Watchtower "library" was digital. It was a single floor to ceiling station near the communications center. Inside a stainless steel casing and display was a large screen. Kid Flash arrived at the same time as Black Canary arrived from the other direction.

"Kid Flash!" she smiled a greeting to him.

"Ma'am," Kid Flash said with a nod of his head adoptinga respectful stance with his hands clasped behind his back.. She gave him a pat on the shoulder.

"What're you here for? I thought you might be doing something with Speedy."

"I'd rather read a book," he said diplomatically.

She had a calculating expression that seemed to say she understood everything he wasn't saying. She nodded slightly then rubbed his cheek. "Gosh, what a handsome boy you are. Your aunt told me but you're even more handsome than I thought you'd be."

Kid Flash looked bashfully down at his boots. "Thank you ma'am. You're very kind."

"Oh, quit with the false modesty," she said and tilted his chin back up. "And, listen to me. You and Speedy might not be getting along well right now, but you'll both be heroes for a long long time. Don't close the door on the possibility of you two being friends. Okay? Will you promise me that."

He nodded. "I promise."

She patted the pre-teen speedster's head. "Okay. What book do you want?"

Kid Flash backed away a step. "Oh no, ma'am. You can go first. I'm not sure how to work the system, anyway."

"I should let a handsome boy see what sort of things I like to read?"

Again, Kid Flash looked bashfully down at his boots. "I promise I won't tell anyone," he said softly. She chuckled. "I'm just kidding. How 'bout we do this together?" she said and quickly activated the machine which intoned in a warm female voice, "Welcome to the Watchtower Library." Black Canary expertly navigated the menus while explaining to Kid Flash, peeking over her shoulder, just what she was doing. Finally, she navigated to where the large print on the screen listed authors and books in the E's and F's. She pointed to one at the bottom of the screen.

"The Fountainhead. Do you know that one, Kid Flash?"

He shook his head.

"The hero of the book has hair just like yours," she said touching her fingertips to the orange hair spilling out the top of his uniform. "It's a very interesting book. Do you wanna try that one or do you have something else in mind."

"Um, I kinda had another one in mind, but I'll try that one at some point."

"Okay, well, me first," she said and got into the listings for George Eliot. "You ever read anything by George Eliot, Kid Flash?"

He nodded.

"Really? I wasn't really serious. I didn't think a boy your age . . . "

"Twelve and two months."

"I didn't think a boy twelve years and two months old would read something like that."

"I read Felix Holt and I thought it was pretty good."

She shook her head and smiled at him with her head cocked to one side. "What an odd choice. Why that one?"

"It was the first one I saw on the shelf at the library, and . . well, because Middlemarch looked so long. I thought I'd try a shorter one first."

Blach Canary nodded now. "Your aunt wasn't lying about you. She said you were an intellectual sort of boy. So, you recommend Felix Holt, the Radical?"

He nodded emphatically.

"Okay. This'll probably be the first time I trust the book review of a 12 year old boy since I was 12 myself. Now how 'bout you? What do you want?"

A minute later, Kid Flash was back lying on his belly on his bed in the room he was sharing with Speedy with the "book" in hand. It had a leather binding and cover just like a real book. But it was one of only two dozen physical "books" in the Watchtower's library of 10 million volumes. With the choice of a work, the library downloaded into a chip in the binding all the text of that work and the title, Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo. Opening the "book", Kid Flash saw about 20 physical pages. They felt just like paper. He took his gloves off and felt it with his fingertips. Just like paper. But it wasn't. It was a white silica, carbon sheet onto which the "book" projected a page of text from the downloaded work. Once the reader got through ten pages, the "book" in his hand essentially spun that first page around through the binding and erased the print off it. As the reader kept flipping pages, page 1 would become page 41 and have the text of that page "printed" on it. Kid Flash marveled at the device. He flipped through the pages at super speed and he tried the feature that enabled a reader to jump ahead or backward as though suddenly opening to the back of a thick book. He grinned with delight that it worked. What a terrific little device!

He heard a snicker from across the room. "God. You're a geek too, on top of being a scrawny pretty boy who wants to show off his buns."

Kid Flash glanced at him but refused to play the game. He went back to reading his book. He had no idea what Speedy did the rest of the evening. He became completely engrossed in Hugo's story of the fantastically resourceful Gilliatt. He only snapped out of the literary spell when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Flash leaning over him.

"Hey, fella. I just came to check on you. Time for some shuteye. Why don't you get out of your suit and under the covers? Black Canary's bringing Speedy back and he'll be here in a minute."

Kid Flash looked over, surprised to see that Speedy had gone without him noticing. A split second later, Kid Flash was under the covers and his uniform was back inside his ring. Flash gave him a bagel for a snack and Kid Flash ate it in a fraction of a second. Flash whispered "Good night" and gave his little nephew a good night hug about the shoulders just as Speedy returned. Speedy smirked at the sight and turned out the lights and undressed.

"You finish your book you little goody two shoes geek?" he asked from the darkness of his side of the room.

"Address me the right way or I don't speak to you."

"Okay, Kid Flashy, did you finish your exercise in geekness?"

Speedy waited. Silence.

"Hey you little Flasher! You finish your dumb book?"

Silence still.

"Alright, alright. Jeez you're hard to get along with, KID FLASH! Did you finish your book?"

"No. It's really long. I got halfway through it."

"Why would you read something like that? I mean, gimme a break. What's the point?"

"It's about a guy with a heroic spirit. I love reading stuff like that. Flash recommended it."

"God, what a suckup you must be!"

"Go to hell! I'm not a suckup. You're warped. I'm a hero and I work hard to try and be a good one."

Speedy laughed. "What a cornball. Well, don't try and suck up to Green Arrow, ya little red and yellow brown noser or you'll wake up and find yourself crazy glued into an embarassing position. Or maybe I'll shave all your hair off so that you're a bright shiny cue ball. Or maybe I'll get a spell from Zatanna to make you even skinnier than you are, if that's possible. Or maybe I'll . . ."

His voice trailed off with a yawn. Kid Flash scowled and shook his head glancing at him. Great. Now I have to worry about this guy doing something to me. Well, to hell with that. I'll strike first. He deserves it for the way he's been acting.

So, the next morning, or what seemed like morning to the body clocks of the two boys, Kid Flash was up bright and early. He got one of the extra large water glasses from their bathroom and filled it with warm water. He zipped to the side of sleeping Speedy's bed. Speedy had one hand out from under the covers and over the side of the bed. Kid Flash carefully raised the cup under Speedy's hand till it was immersed. He got ready to run. Sure enough, there was the sound.

Psssssssssssssssss.

Kid Flash dabbed Speedy's hand dry with a towel, at super speed, and ran the cup and towel back to the bathroom at super speed. By the time Speedy sat bolt upright with a wide eyed look of embarassment, Kid Flash lay on his side in his bed just as Speedy'd seen him, asleep for all anyone knew. He let Speedy's movements do just enough to wake him and made sure his initial reactions were disgusted surprise, not delight. His act was so good, Speedy never pinned it on him. He thought KF was too much of a goody two shoes type to have done anything to him. He kept blaming some Tameranian drink that he said he'd had despite being warned not to have one by Green Arrow. When Speedy started his same insult then downplay then insult, etc, routine, Kid Flash turned to him and asked if he wanted the whole League to know that he'd wet the bed. Speedy shut up.

This was the Speedy that Kid Flash had known, a hero but with a peculiar personality.


	5. Speedy's new mantra

Since he'd first met Speedy at the Watchtower, the Justice League satellite, Kid Flash had encountered him four more times and had gotten along with him better each time. If not quite a friend, Speedy was certainly someone he could talk to in a relaxed fashion, even if the stuff Robin said about him and Aqualad was true.

As they rode down in the elevator to the basement level where the Combat Simulations room was, Speedy quizzed him. "Do you know about wrestling scoring?"

"Um, not really. All I know is that if you pin the other guy you win."

"Well, yeah, but most matches are decided on points. I'd get two points for a take down. You'd get a point for an escape and I get points for riding you."

"Riding me?"

"What? Oh . . . get your mind out of the gutter. Compiling riding time, time when I controlled your body or had my body above yours. You understand?"

"Um, yeah."

Speedy led him into the combat simulations room onto a thick rubbery mat. He pressed his hand on Kid Flash's shoulder. "On all fours."

Kid Flash raised an eyebrow.

"There are two ways to start a wrestling match, both guys standing or the position I'm going to show you. You get down on all fours and I wrap one arm around your waist and put my hand on your other arm."

"Seriously?"

"Just get down, pretty boy. It's straight from the wrestling rule book. Besides. If we start off standing, you'll just beat me with speed in nothing flat."

Kid Flash got down on all fours. Speedy savored the sight for a moment then knelt beside him and wrapped one arm around Kid Flash's waist.

"Man, you have a small waist," he remarked with a chuckle. He kept quiet about his fellow redhead's very good shoulders and amazingly muscular butt.

Kid Flash looked at him quizzically. "You really think I won't still beat you with super speed?"

"Hey, skinny ass. I've already got my hands on you."

"Uh huh. When do we start?"

"On three . . one . . two . . THREE!"

Speedy started to try to push Kid Flash over and onto his stomach but instantly found his arms up high over his head. He couldn't move 'em. He was in a full nelson and he fell heavily to the mat with Kid Flash on top of him. Speedy grunted trying to free himself but couldn't. Kid Flash let him up and Speedy patted his butt.

"Good job, KF. I wasn't ready for your speed. Let's try that again." It seemed impossible. And it was a bit humiliating to him to be handled so easily by the nearly 20 pounds lighter speedster. Just need to get going against him, thought Speedy.

"Um . . okay. If you really want to."

Kid Flash bent down onto all fours again. Speedy paused a moment to memorize that, to him, one in six billion butt then wrapped an arm around the waist of the incandescent speedster. This time he'd be ready.

"Okay. On three . . one . . two . . THREE!"

"Unnh!" Speedy grunted as he, again, fell helplessly to the mat instantaneously immobilizedin a full nelson, Kid Flash on top of him. He struggled to free himself but couldn't.

"Alright. You've made your point. You're really fast."

Kid Flash let him up. "What do you want to do?"

Speedy sighed. "How 'bout you go slow and give me a chance to show you some technique, sweeps and holds and things?"

Kid Flash chuckled. "Okay."

Speedy was wary, expecting to find himself helpless in a full nelson hold at any moment but Kid Flash was true to his word and grappled with Speedy for 15 minutes at a relatively normal speed. And six foot tall, 163 pound Speedy tossed around five foot ten and a quarter, 147 pound Kid Flash pretty freely. Finally, he had the smaller, red and yellow clad speedster on his back and was trying to work his shoulders down to the mat for a pin. But he looked in the speedster's big blue eyes, took in the shape of his strong cheekbones, square jaw and full red lips. He pushed with all his might, but not to pin the speedster. He puckered up and lunged to plant a kiss on those full lips. Kid Flash couldn't stop him, not at normal speed. At the last possible moment, he spun out of the way and Speedy ended up kissing the mat. Speedy looked over his shoulder from a prone position on the mat at a standing and annoyed Kid Flash. He got up to face him.

"Is that all this was, an excuse to try and kiss me?"

"Well . . kind of. I hoped for even more. You're so . . "

"Jeez, Speedy. I-I guess I can take it as a compliment. But I love Jinx. I'm not interested in guys, not in that way. It-it doesn't mean I don't want to be friends with you, just not . . . sexually. Okay?"

Speedy was caught between conflicting emotions. Kid Flash's easygoing reaction was endearing. He wasn't angry or indignant. He didn't sink into name calling. He just wasn't interested. At the same time, Speedy was slightly disappointed. The ones who flew off the handle feared the truth, feared that they might be interested or feared that Speedy had realized they were interested. The boy gymnast had angrily denied any interest, at first. He had no chance at all with Kid Flash.

"So . . . I shouldn't do this?" he asked as he reached for one spectacular looking scarlet clad buttock but had his hand slapped away.

"No," chuckled Kid Flash. "You shouldn't."

"You don't mind that someone with my . . uh . . range of interests is on your team?"

Kid Flash shrugged. "Nah. Live and let live. You're a hero, a really good one. I don't care what you do after work and with whom you do it. It's just not gonna be with me," he chuckled. And to seal his position on things, he gave Speedy a hug about the shoulders. Speedy hugged back very enthusiastically. Then they separated and Speedy showed him some more leg sweeps and wrestling tricks.

After a little more sincere practice, Zzzzt!Zzzzt!Zzzzt! Kid Flash felt his ring buzz on his finger. He pushed Speedy away.

"What'd I do?"

"No. It's not you."

Zzzzt!Zzzzt!Zzzzt! There it was again.

"I'vegottagoSpeedy.Myring'sbuzzingforanothercallfromFlash.Hedoesn'tcallmeunlesshereallyneedsmyhelpsoI'vegottagettoCentralCityrightaway.Seeyoulater!"

Speedy just waved goodbye at the red and yellow departing blur as he tried to replay those words in his head at normal speed. And at the same time as Kid Flash exited, Robin entered the Combat Simulations room.

"He slips into that when he's thinking of Flash. Extra fast talking. I think the two of them talk extra fast to each other and he starts thinking of Flash and slips into it with other Titans. He holds himself back in a lot of ways to interact with other people. Like you. Did you have to make a play for him? Couldn't you turn off the sex hound instinct for five minutes?"

"Hey, we're still buds. He's not upset."

"I hope not. But you pull that shit way too much. Is there anybody here you haven't made a play for?"

"Um . . maybe you."

"Well, keep your hands off Starfire, too."

"Mmmmm. Starfire! What a tight little tush!" said Speedy and he licked his lips just to annoy Robin.

"What'd I tell you! What'd I tell you!"

Any other time and Robin would've realized that his attitude was a bit over the top but the loss of control of his own body with these canine transformations had made him look to control things even more than usual.

"What're you gonna do about it, little guy?" smirked Speedy.

"This!" said Robin lunging at him. The two of them wrestled and fell to the mat. Despite being two and three quarter inches shorter and twenty some pounds lighter, Robin grabbed the initiative right away. He had Speedy twisted against the side wall of the room and was demanding that Speedy promise to stay away from Starfire when he felt Speedy snatch at his utility belt.

"Get out of there!" he demanded. But it was too late. When they'd first fallen to the mat, Speedy had let Robin control things so that he could press one hand to the various pockets of his utility belt. One seemed promising. Now, Speedy had reached in and grabbed a ring. He fought with all this strength now and pushed Robin away from him. He ran toward the far end of the com sims room and held the ring up to read the inscription.

"In . . ca . . nis . . Cor . . por . . e . . Trans . . mu . . to!" he shouted at an onrushing Robin. "Incanis Corpore Transmuto!"

Robin jumped at Speedy. He tried to wrest the ring from his grasp, but it was happening. It was already happening. His nose was already blackening. His blood was rushing like crazy in his ears and his skin felt like he was being poked by ten thousand pins. He felt his pants suddenly become loose in the crotch. He could feel fur covering over his skin under his uniform. His gloves dropped off and he stepped out of one shoe. With each passing second, he got weaker. Speedy shoved him backward and laughed. "Oh my god! It's true! It's true! Incanis Corpore Transmuto!"

"Dammit! Stop saying that!" shouted a half canine Robin as his tail pushed out from the seat of his pants and his nose and mouth pushed forward into his new muzzle.

"Incanis Corpore Transmuto! Incanis Corpore Transmuto! Incanis Corpore Transmuto!"

"Stop saying that! It turns me into a dog!"

Speedy smirked. "I know. I think you should stay that way for a little while as a lesson. Maybe then you'll back off trying to pull that over the top leader shit every second of the day."

He watched in fascination as a frantic Robin the german shepherd wiggled his new dog body out of his red and green uniform, doing so very quickly after having now had practice at this task. "I can't let the others see me like this! That monkey thing with Mumbo was bad enough. At least then all the others got zapped, too."

So focused was Robin on getting off his uniform that he didn't notice Speed approaching till he was right beside him. Quickly, Speedy fastened a collar to the former Boy Wonder. "Teach you a lesson control nut."

"Hey!"

Robin was just barely able to squirm free before a leash could be attached to the collar. Speedy chased the dog Robin around the com sims room but couldn't seem to catch him. He collected his clothes in a small bundle and read the ring's inscription several more times. This incensed Robin who snarled and seemed to run right for Speedy but, at the last second, veered off and ran past him managing to jump against the door at the elevator and stairwell side hard enough to just open it a crack. He pushed his brown and black muzzle into the gap and squeezed his new furry body through. Robin looked frantically at the options, elevators to the left, stairwell to the right. He went left and pressed his wet black nose to the up button beside the elevator doors. Ouch. The doors opened.

When Speedy came out into the hall, he saw the elevator doors close and he saw the indicator above the doors stop at 13. He waited and then took the elevator up to the same floor. He expected to find the german shepherd Robin in his room but didn't. He looked elsewhere on 13 but came up empty everywhere. Robin had only pressed his ultra sensitive nose to the 13 button then jumped out of the elevator. He'd then squeezed past the stairwell door and climbed the stairs on four legs up to the 6th floor which had backup communications. He knew he could find an extra communicator there.

He first wanted to find out if Raven was available. It took him nearly 10 minutes, poking at the controls on an extra communicator with a pencil in his dog mouth, to make a simple status check and find that she still hadn't checked back in after her special meditation session.

Damn.

But, even in his canine condition, Robin was a determined fighter and he immediately turned his thoughts to strategy. What would Speedy do? If he wants to keep me like this he's gotta keep me away from Raven. So, he'll check with the others about her and find that she's unavailable. He won't just wait in front of her door because he can't stop her from going somewhere else. No. He'll start to comb the rest of the building for me.

That's just what happened. Speedy went up to the 13th floor, the level where all the private quarters were and searched Robin's room. Nothing. He looked all around that floor but found no trace of Robin the canine wonder. He jogged up to level 14, the communications center and great room and found Beast Boy and Cyborg playing a video game. In the kitchen, Starfire was making something hard to identify at a glance, perhaps a casserole, perhaps a stew, perhaps spackle. Hard to tell. She was talking to Jinx who was seated on a stool at the counter and Speedy could hear them talk as he searched adjacent rooms.

". . . that's all you can do is accept it, friend, Jinx. You know that he loves you."

Sigh. "I . . yeah . . I just . . . I just hate being put in this position of waiting for him and not knowing and . . . well, why does he have to do this? Beast Boy doesn't answer calls from the fricking Doom Patrol."

"Huh? What's that?" came a voice from the great room. "Can't you stop talking about my green handsomeness for even a minute you women! Hehehehe."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Like I was saying. Robin doesn't take calls from Batman. Why is Wally on call like this? I can only imagine how bad he gets hurt some of these times. He heals like that," she snapped her fingers. "He comes back with holes in his uniform and always tries to tell me that he just got his uniform snagged on something, like I'm so stupid I should believe that."

"Or maybe you are so beloved by him, friend Jinx, that he cannot bear for you to be pained by things he can overcome. Wally doesn't think you are stupid. He loves that you are a . . . bookie."

"A bookie?" chuckled Jinx.

"Is that not the term for a book lover?"

"Uh . . no. It's kind of complicated but it means something completely different."

"Um, 'scuse me," said Speedy stepping beside them as Starfire stirred a thick yellow goo in a large bowl. "Have you seen a german shepherd in here?"

"So, Robin got the dog he was talking about, huh?" came Cyborg's deep voice from the great room, followed by a cry of "Booyah! Take that, little green sprout!"

"Oh, Robin told you about the dog?" Speedy asked the girls innocently.

"Yes, friend Speedy. But we weren't sure that Robin had gotten one. He just said that he was thinking of getting a canine that shepherds the germans," she said with a nod of certainty. Jinx glanced at Speedy. Don't bother. Just let it go. Speedy nodded and walked on. He started to the stairs and went down to 12 to continue his search for Robin. Once out of sight of the others, in the stairwell, he immediately pulled out the ring from his utilitiy belt and started repeating over and over.

"Incanis Corpore Transmuto. Incanis Corpore Transmuto. Incanis Corpore Transmuto . . ."

He returned the ring to his utility belt and went down to 12. Thirty seconds later, Robin the german shepherd trotted down from the obscured spot on the landing by the door to the roof and quietly nudged open the door to the 13th floor. He grumbled to himself about damn Speedy repeating the incantation over and over and looked around frantically as he tried to decide where to go. The 13th floor was a good place to be, for now, because, having just searched it, Speedy wouldn't look there right away. But he'd come back to it. Robin eyed the hall closet with its special door handle, not a knob but a handle so that someone with a handful of stuff could use it. He gripped it between his teeth and turned it. He figured he could probably do the same from the inside when necessary. He pulled the door shut and tried to hide himself among the linen and other things stored there. The closet was also right across the hall from Raven's room and he'd hear if she left it.

He hoped he might find himself turning back into a boy. But he waited for hours in that storage closet and was a dog the whole time. Damn Speedy! What's more, there was no sign of Raven but many times he heard Speedy talking to the others or repeating the ring's inscription. Robin was despairing a bit when he heard a familiar super rapid fire progression of footsteps from the stairwell and then in the hall.

"Kid Flash!" he whispered to himself. He made an instantaneous decision to tell his pal and seek his help. He couldn't stay in that storage closet any longer. He grabbed the door handle in his mouth and pulled down then pushed the door open. He ran toward Kid Flash one room over and managed to sneak into his room before the door closed.

Kid Flash looks exhausted. He's wobbly on his feet and almost falls over as he turns and sees that a dog has followed him into his room. He gives the dog a few vigorous pets as Robin, the dog in question, tries to decide how to broach the subject. Not that it's such a bad thing. The vigorous petting feels great.

"Oh, look at you!" Kid Flash half whispers. "What a handsome guy you are! You must be Robin's dog, huh?"

KF patted the dog the same way he did the neighbor's cat that had liked to sleep on him. A few delicate touches by the chin, some more between the ears and then a long pet down this dogs back ending with a few by his tail. The beautiful brown-black german shepherd whimpered slightly with delight at the petting he was getting. So, KF gave him another round of it.

Robin found himself involuntarily wagging his new tail fast as he could and rubbing up against his pal.This felt great! And as Robin looked up into his pal's handsome face he found himself feeling odd responses. Wally's chiseled features and big blue eyes made Robin feel an obsequious affection that could be summed up in one word.

Master.

Wally is his master. Master's pets feel so good! Master's so big and impressive! Look at Master's athletic human body! Wow! Thank you master! These instinctual responses overwhelm Robin's attempts at conscious thought. Wally pats the beautiful dog's side over and over and Robin finds his sensual delight in his canine body overwhelming his efforts to control his thoughts, to start a conversation with his pal. Robin finds himself licking his friend's face, an impulse he can't resist. And he likes it.

Wally laughs and pushes german shepherd Robin away but keeps patting him and his now canine pal keeps quietly whimpering with delight.

"Oh, you handsome guy," said Wally, patting the side of the dog's hips while the dog also rubbed against his leg. "I shouldn't be petting you, boy. I'm a cat person and our neighbor's cat will be real mad if she finds out I did. But Jinx says that I have lingering attachment anxiety. Can ya beat that? I give her love and she gives me pop psychology. What do you think of that boy?"

Robin gave another whimper of delight as Wally kept petting the dog's side from front to back..

"Yeah. She doesn't mind the compulsive foreplay or my wanting to spoon afterward all the time, but she wants to tell me how growing up with nobody loving or hugging me's made me want to hug everyone. I'm a 29th century boy, puppy dog. I might want to hug everyone and pet every dog because I'm genetically engineered to be like that, just like my face and my body are supposed to be like this."

He pushed the dog away and with his last little bit of super speed, peeled off his red and yellow uniform and red dance belt and tossed them aside onto the carpet. He wobbled a moment, unsteady on his feet and then caught himself with one hand on the door frame before trudging naked into the bathroom. He didn't even close the door as he started to shower.

Robin is shocked at what he did, licking his pal's face, and even more that he liked doing it. He knew he needed to tell KF what's happened but is embarassed that he's licked Wally's face and let Wally pet him. Still, he's gotta do it. He's gotta tell his pal and get his help to stop being a dog. Just 30 seconds later, he zips out, his shower done and almost finished drying off. Robin wants to talk to KF but KF doesn't see him sitting in the shadows of his room and returns from the bathroom, drops his towel and lets himself collapse forward into an immediate deep sleep atop his bed.

Robin is frustrated, angry that his pal so exhausted himself and is unconscious. But at the same time, he feels stupid for being mad at KF for his dedication when his first impression of him had been a false perception that he wasn't dedicated enough. All he can do is stand there on his four paws and stare at his naked pal. Damn! Eventually, a canine impulse strikes him and without thinking, Robin approaches his friend, stepping up on the bed with his front paws and leaning forward between Wally's hyper toned but pale skinned thighs. Robin sniffs with his wet nose right next to the cleft of Wally's rear, but Wally just washed. The only scent is Neutrogena. The impulse irresistible to him in his furry new body, Robin presses his nose against his pal's butt and sniffs deeply. Ahhhhhh! That's my master! Then Robin jumps back, his dog eyes wide.

_Oh my god! What am I doing! What am I doing!_ The german shepherd dropped back limply to the carpet. _I smelled my pal's butt. God. I licked Wally's face and I sniffed his ass. Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! I have got to get out of this!_

Robin paced around the room. He wished he could wake his friend but it wasn't fair to Wally. If he'd really exhausted himself to the point that he collapsed like that, then it wasn't right to get him up. Let him sleep at least a bit. Wally recovers fast through sleep, too, right? While pondering this, Robin found he'd wandered to the bathroom. Sooooooo thirsty. And before he knew it, he was lapping up water from the toilet with his extra long tongue.

Robin the german shepherd jumped back from the bowl as a dog might if it'd seen a cobra in the grass.

"Oh christ. Now I'm drinking from the frigging bowl," he muttered out loud.

Robin resolves to wait for Wally to wake if he has to but hopes to change back to Robin and sneak out. Unfortunately for this hope, a smirking Speedy was walking the halls of the Tower repeating like a mantra, "In canis corpore transmuto. In canis corpore transmuto". Robin even hears Speedy knock on KF's door. He hears Speedy's voice calling out in a friendly tone for KF. "Hey KF? You in there, KF?" He's pulled by conflicting emotions, wanting to attack Speedy but fearful that the bisexual archer will do something else to him. He looks nervously to KF, but his sleek bodied naked friend doesn't move a muscle, so deep is his slumber. Speedy leaves.

Minute after minute passes and, to Robin's exasperation, he's still a dog. What if this is permanent, he starts to wonder. At last, Robin sees KF starts to wake up, but not alone. Jinxhas entered the room.


	6. Voyeur to victor

Jinx enters Kid Flash's quarters in her usual purple, indigo and black goth garb. Robin, still a german shepherd, hides behind the large chair in the corner of the half darkened room. As she approaches the bed, he climbs onto the chair, slipping underneath some of Kid Flash's giant sized pants and shirts that he'd worn in the past to protect his secret identity. He sees her stop at the edge of the bed looking down at her naked unconscious boyfriend. He had stirred slightly at her entrance but lay motionless, face down again, only his back rising slightly with each breath.

"Fucking Wallace . ..", she muttered angrily and shook her head. From off to her side, Robin could see her eyes glow pink with anger. But it was an anger that she held in check. She kicked off her shoes and then slowly tossed off all her other clothes, a black lace dress landed on the chair and hung over Robin's canine head like a sagging bed canopy. He watches Jinx sit down on the bed beside Kid Flash, her eyes still colored with anger. She gently stroked the calf of his right leg.

"Did whoever the fuck it was you were wiping yourself out for have any appreciation for who the hell was saving their asses? Did they?" she snapped and then let out a long sigh. She ran her hand up his thigh and patted his rear, leaving her hand there.

"Just fucking tell me, Wally!" she whispered through more shakes of the head. "Don't leave me sitting here passively wondering what the fuck's happening to you. You know I'm not the passive type." She shook her head some more and then ran her hand along his back, enjoying the feel of his skin and his V-shaped back. Slowly she rubbed harder and he started to stir.

"mmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . . "

She grabbed a handful of tangled orange hair. Her eyes glowed pink again. Robin wasn't sure what she would do. Kid Flash let out a few fatigued moans and slowly rolled onto his back. Robin had seen all sides of him before in the Combat Simulations room showers but was surprised that Jinx could be so casual about Wally lying their in the with his equipment right there.

"Hey babe," he whispered.

"What was it this time that you couldn't tell me about it."

He blinked and took a second to collect his thoughts, obviously still out of it. "My dad called."

Jinx sighed. It was hard to reproach him for helping the man who was finally giving some paternal influence to his life. "You had to be there? Why don't any of the others have to be somewhere for someone else. Doom Patrol doesn't call for Beast Boy. Robin doesn't have to jump and go help Batman. Why the hell do you still have to do that shit?"

"Robin works like a dog doing all sorts of leadership things that none of the rest of us do. He brings a lot of value to the rest of us that way."

Jinx got up with an angry expression and went to where Kid Flash's uniform lay on the floor. "He couldn't carry your jock," she said picking his up from the floor and tossing it aside.

"No! Not here!" Robin pleaded to himself, but Kid Flash's sole undergarment sailed through the air and then landed, with exquisite bad luck for Robin, right across his muzzle, the waistband wrapped around his ears. The canine boy wonder held his breath. He tried to shake his head and get the damn thing off him but only succeeded in affixing it more securely. Finally. Ugh. He had to breath and found himself taking every breath through his pal Kid Flash's scarlet dance belt. Ugh. Robin wondered to himself if the curse of the ring wasn't to also suffer every humiliation possible. Robin gritted his canine teeth with all his might. What's next? Alright, it didn't smell as bad as he thought it would. Thank god Wally was fairly clean.

"Jinx. That's not fair. Robin does a lot of stuff that he doesn't talk about."

"Well, what were you doing?"

"My dad called me on my ring. It was Gorilla Grodd."

"Look. I know he's real dangerous. But why the fuck do you have to get called?"

"It's a special case. I . . . he does this-this brain blast thing," He mimicked how Grodd did it, raising one hand to his temple and rolling his eyes up into his head so not much but the whites showed. "It-it wipes Flash out. It's like a super migraine, an instantaneoud super migraiin. That's what Flash says it's like for him. But it-it doesn't do much of anything to me. When he tries to do that to me, I just hear some mild sound like static on a radio turned down low."

"Another29th century boy thing?"

"Yeah, probably. We don't know. But yeah, probably 'cuz I'm genetically 90 percent a 29th century Thawne."

Jinx sighed. "Allright. I . . I accept that maybe there was a good reason for you to get the call. But fucking TELL ME! Fer chrissakes! Tell me. I love you and care for you and I will even accept that I will worry about you. But I can't be a wimpy, passive sort of girl sitting around waiting for her guy to call or send a message or show up. You've gotta meet me half fucking way. Let me go on missions more and fucking TELL ME when you're going. You can hustle your buns up from Com Sims in a fricking millisecond. Do it!"

He sat up and pulled her to him and rubbed his nose on hers. "I'm sorry. I was wrong. I-I get so caught up in responding to the call sometimes that I forget everything else. You're right. Just let me square things away. I don't have any relationship experience at all before this, so sometimes I'm going to make dumb mistakes."

He raised one eyebrow. Okay?

She nodded and rubbed the end of her nose in a circle around the end of his. Both smiled.

"Did you at least get a hug from Flash out of it?"

He laughed. "Of course. He's my dad now. He hugs me when I get homework done."

She laughed. "Perfect for you, skinny mr. touchy."

His response was to grin, nod and then hug her tight. But that was only the beginning. They french kissed, heads turned to one side and then to the other.Then, she leaned back, heldup comfortably by his arms as he kissedthe soft skin of her neck and then worked his way down.

Robin had never seen a pornographic movie in his life. They'd had such things around the circus, but the workers there would never have let the Graysons' 11 year old son see one. Then, living with Batman, there was about as much chance of seeing a pornographic movie as there was of seeing Batman pal around with the Joker. But this didn't really seem like one, to Robin, anyway. Weren't those just about cheap, dirty sex? KF loved her. He truly loved her. It was in his eyes, the way he looked at her and enjoyed it so much when he drove her around the bend. And she was the same. The pride in her eyes when she looked at him was unmistakeable. Her guy. Completely committed to her guy. In a way, Robin felt worse about watching them, as fascinating as it was, because their affection was so strong. It was supposed to be just theirs. There wasn't supposed to be a teammate of his watching them froma chair in the darkest corner of the room. But he couldn't stop watching. He knew he should just close his now brown eyes but he couldn't. Him on top. Her on top. Against the wall right beside him. Him pleasuring her down there. Her doing the same for him. It was all as . . athletic as making love could be, actually more than Robin thought it could be. What was the deal with him vibrating his thing? And super speeed tongue! Robin had joked with Gar about Kid Flash, the fastest boy alive and what that would mean in . . certain situations. But he and Jinx made love for hours while Robin waited and watched in fascination.

And when they finished, KF held her in front of him as the two of them dozed off, spooning atop the covers. At last, Jinx got up to get food for both of them and Robin the german shepherd snuck out the door behind her. Where to? With some trepidation he decided to go to the next door down. Raven's room, hoping that she was through her extended meditation. He frantically scratched at the door with his dog paws and alternately let out dog whimpers and called her name in human voice.

"Raven . . . Raven . . . Raven!". He can hear chanting from within. But finally it ends and an exasperated Raven threw the door, towering over him.

"Cut the crap! I'm not gonna pet you and end up with my hand on your little green ass, again, so just . . oh . . . wait . . you're not green."

"No I'm not," said Robin's voice from the pointy muzzle of the german shepherd in front of her causing one eyebrow to raise. "Whatever jokes you want to make are fine with me. But it's me, Robin and I think I might be stuck like this?"

Raven let him into her room with a raised eyebrow then closed the door. The interior was dimly lit. Robin took a good sniff. "Oh god, brimstone! It's overpowering!"

"Should I really get criticism from someone who eats his dinner out of dish on the floor?" she said looking down at her mysteriously canine teammate.

"Alright, alright. This new sense of smell is just so sensitive. I notice everything."

"Did you notice how this happened to you?"

"Of course I did! Do you think this happens to me all the time?"

"Well, you were a monkey once before, too."

The german shepherd sighed angrily. "Look. It's like this. KF and I stopped Red X from robbing the Jump City Museum of Antiquities yesterday morning. Toward the end of the fight, KF smacked Red X but good and all the stuff Red X had swiped went up into the air. So, the fight's over and we're putting everything back when I realize that I've got something caught between my collar and my cape. I pick it out and it's this ring. I-I just read the inscription, out of curiosity and wham! I start changing into a dog. Before I'm visibly canine, Kid Flash gets a call from Flash and takes off. I'm left there with my body turned into this!"

Raven petted him. "You're really a beautiful dog."

"Please don't do that," pleaded Robin. "It's distracting. It-it feels really good. Anyway. I talked to a professor at the museum-"

"Talked . . . as a . . . dog?"

Robin sighed angrily. "Yes.Anyway. He wasn't even surprised. He said I was a-was a natural born shape shifter and that this ring is-is just my thing."

"Your thing?"

"The-the spell I'm susceptible to. It turns me randomly into a dog with intermittent periods of being human again. Or at least it would except Speedy's got the damn ring now and he's pissed at me so he just keeps reading the inscription. That turns me into a dog, too. And he keeps reading it so it makes me stay a dog."

She petted his head. He first whimpered with delight then backed away.

"Please! I asked you not to do that. It's all I can do to not give in to all my new dog instincts. I still feel an instinct to sniff your butt."

"Ooooooooookaaaaaaaaay."

"I'm a dog, fer chrissakes. My mind is human but all my senses, all my instincts are canine. It's like getting a feeling that's the equivalent of someone saying, 'hey, sniff her butt!' 'Lick KF's face!' 'Sniff KF's ass'. And I couldn't resist some of the time."

"Oooooookaaaaaaay again. Let's uh let's skip to the part about what we should do."

"Good. I-I don't want to talk about being trapped in KF's room when he and Jinx . . ." He sighed. ". . over and over and over . . . sometimes him over her, sometimes her over him. Sometimes . . ," he stopped at the sight of her expression. "Um,well, anyway, how do I get out of this? Do you think you can reverse the spell?"

"Possibly. But I need to see that ring. I need to know what its origins are and where the supernatural energies it taps to do this to you are from. Where's Speedy right now?"

"I don't know. I've been hiding from him. He put this collar on me and was going to leash me, too."

"Not very comradely behavior."

"No, that son of a bitch!"

"Um, should you really be calling anyone that in your present condition?"

Meanwhile, staring out the windows of the great room, well, half staring out and half staring at his own handsome reflection in it, Speedy held the ring in his closed hand just below his chin. He chuckled to himself. Robin! Ha! He stared down at the ring, smiling mischievously while repeating over and over.

"IncaniscorporetransmutoIncaniscorporetransmutoIncaniscorporetransmutoIncaniscoroporetransmutoIncaniscorporetransmutoIncaniscorporetransmutoIncaniscorporetransmutoIncaniscorporetransmuto . . "

Suddenly, Speedy stopped smirking.

"What the hell . . ?" he muttered. All of a sudden, he felt a sensation on both his ears like they were being used as pin cushions for a hundred pins. And there it was on his biceps, like a ring around each bicep, a feeling like hundreds of needles were being stuck in him or like he was getting one of those stripe on your bicep tattoos. Except heroes couldn't get tattoos. Distinguishing marks were a no no. Now, holy shit, there it was all over his ass. He reached back there with both hands looking around the room. Was anyone watching? No? Good. He scratched feverishly at the tight red rear of his uniform but it didn't change. And now, just like his arms, a ring of this same feeling around each thigh.

"What the hell's going on?" he muttered anxiously then sniffed curiously. Sniff. Sniff.

"God. What's with the ventilation of this place?What're all those smells all of a sudden?"

Back on the 13th floor, Raven was almost out the door of her room to try and find Speedy when she felt a tug at her boot.

"It's happening, Raven! It's happening!" said the dog that was her teammate Robin.

"What're you talking about?" she asked but then closed the door. She could see the dog's tail getting shorter and his brown dog eyes had already turned bright blue. As she watched over the next 10 seconds, the dog's muzzle pulled back and flattened. Its fine black and brown coat disappeared only to be replaced by fine paleskin and shiny jet black hair. Robin found himself back to normal. He was overjoyed.

"I'm me again!" he said out loud then quickly remembered that 'me' was naked, except for a dog collar around his neck, in Raven's room . . right in front of Raven. His hands both went to his crotch as he stood up then jumped back from her. She smirked at the superlative, slender muscled body of her teammate and even more at his beautiful eyes. They were so much like Kid Flash's. Sooo much. Sooooo very blue..

"Um, could you uh-could you get me a towel please? Please?"

Raven just stood smirking at her naked teammate. She leaned to one side and took in the sight of his ass.

"Nice!"

"Come on," he pleaded. "A towel? Please. I can't get out the door with both hands like this."

"And the problem is . . . ?"

"Raven!"

"Oh, alright."

Two minutes later, Robin, in a spare uniform and Raven in her usual attire walked warily into the great room, scanning all around as they went. Their attentions both stopped on the couch. There, sata very large poodle, its white fur cut in a ridiculous looking pattern of being close shaved over most of the sillylooking dog but with its fur puffed out here and there. The end of its tail was a round white ball of hair and each leg had one ring of puffed out fur. The hair on each ear was similarly puffed out while most of its unimpressive body was close shaved. As Robin and Raven approached, the dog whimpered over and over and they could see that this poodle was sitting on top of a red spandex uniform and was, improbably, wearing an athletic supporter about its crotch. The poodle shifted position revealing an archer's quiver behind it. Again, the big white poodle whimpered and stared plaintively at them.

Robin laughed at the "dog" in Speedy's jockstrap. "Oh, this is just too perfect. So, your constantly calling on the spell turned it on you, huh?"

The large poodle grunted then nodded reluctantly. It tried to step on the jockstrap it was wearing with its front paws and lift it's canine ass and legs out of it but couldn't quite manage it. Robin chuckled and approached the poodle and helped it out of the teen boy's undergarment. He gathered up the uniform that just minutes before fit the new canine skin tight. He and Raven looked over the dog that had been Speedy.

"You can talk, can't you?" asked Robin. "I could."

"Um . . yeah. But, I don't want anyone else to know. This is pretty freaking humiliating. Look at me! I'm like some wussy Westminster Dog show freak."

"It's kind of fitting in a way," said Raven. "You've always been a complete hound for action. Now you're just a complete hound. Or poodle."

"Please! Don't tell anyone. Especially not Aqualad."

"We shouldn't do anything for you," snapped Robin. "You tried to leave me stuck as a german shepherd."

"Oh come on. I would've let you change back in a week or so. You were badmouthing me to everyone, limiting my options."

"Well your options include frisbees and dog food and a leash, now, till Raven changes you back."

"Ugh. Alright, alright. I gotta get hands and lips again . . . and a better haircut."

"Let's go get that collar and a leash," said Robin and he Raven left the metapmorphosed Titans East boy in his humiliating new poodle body on the couch.

Moments later, Jinx sauntered past, the edge of the room, humming cheerfully. Speedy saw the exquisite girl go by. He had wanted her before. He had put his desire aside. He'd barely been able to resist any sensual impulse as a teenage boy. His senses were all canine wired and, to the visual delights of his environment, an olfactory feast was now added. Where Robin had fought against his new canine status, Speedy went with the doggy flow. The air currents carried a host of intriguing smells from Jinx, imperceptible to a human but like a siren call to Speedy the poodle. He jumped nimbly down from the couch and trotted up behind the black lace clad goth girl, immediately comfortable with four legged movement and willing to enjoy the sights from his new perspective.

_Amazing. Her . . . Her perfume. The detergent that'd been used to wash the sheets she'd been sleeping on. And, so fricking obviously, him. She's got a boy's smell all over her. Kid Flash! Haha! Kid Flash! Completely masculine, a fantastic musk mixing with her luscious female scent. Hmm. Maybe this dog thing's not so bad. _

His curiosity piqued, Speedy snuck his new muzzle under the lace of her skirt as she nibbled on a muffin at the counter in the kitchen. He looked up at the tight round curves of her rear. _Mmmmm! So feminine! Beautiful!_ He pressed his nose to her and inhaled deeply.

"Hey! Get outta there, dog! What the hell are you doing in here, anyway?" she laughed shooing the dog away from her rear. It stepped around to the front of her and sniffed at her crotch. He felt a reaction of excitement at the sight of it.

_Haha! Boy smells ALL over her there, too. That's boy crotch there, too. God, that Kid Flash. So that's why he didn't answer his door._

To Jinx's surprise, the ridiculously shorn poodle stood up on its hind legs with its paws against her waist and pressed its nose to her cleavage. Jinx was a bit annoyed at this but felt sorry for the poor beast, with its hair cut so comically. She ran her hand down the poor stupid beast's back.

_Mmm. No, not bad at all. Pet me just a little lower baby. Oooo yeah, there! Give Speedy's furry buns some love. Mmmm. Yeah. Too bad it's so hard for me to stay up on two legs like this_.

Jinx smirked at the way the big poodle's tail whipped back and forth with the petting she was giving it. But then its tongue shot out and licked the side of her face and then slathered all over her cleavage.

_Hehehe! Sweet!_

"Ecchhhhh! That's enough for you, fido," she said pushing him away. Just as she did, Kid Flash came walking at normal speed into the kitchen. Neither he nor Jinx noticed the dog's eyes go wide with excitement.

_Just as well, Jinx baby. You're hot but he's incredible. Nothing like the buns of a boy who sprints a million miles. Mmmm. So muscular and yet compact at the same time. Soooooooo masculine! Beautiful!_

Kid Flash, in his uniform but with the mask pulled down by the base of his throat, looked at the contents of the fridge. After a few moments he noticed the oddly shorn large white poodle sniffing around his buns. He gave one swat to drive the dog off but felt its cold nose trace its way around his rear once, then twice then a third time. Then the dog pushed at first one side then the other of his buttocks, lifting Kid Flash's glutes almost as if trying to weigh his buns..

"Hey!" he laughed. "Come on, doggie. I'm not your bitch."

_You're better, pretty boy. What a pair! I could do a million squats and a million lunges and not be shaped like you. Mmmm. You thought I wouldn't get to play with your butt, huh? Wrong! Hehehe. And what a great smell you have, too! Subtle but sooooo completely masculine. God! I could just lick you for hours, pretty boy, with that smell. The smell that was all over her, incidentally. I should just sniff you but, what the hell._

"What the-!" Kid Flash called out and Jinx laughed and slapped the counter as the big white poodle first seemed to try to press its narrow snout as deeply is possible into the cleft of her boyfriend's rear and then bit him. Well, to say it bit him sounds like a quick action. The dog actually opened its jaws and gripped his left buttock with its bared teeth as it pressed him against the shelves on the inside of the fridge.

"Jeez, doggy!" He used a little speed and quickly circled around behind the dog, lifting it up and giving it a few pets before pushing it away toward the great room. He talked with Jinx for a minute then sat down on the couch in the great room and immediately was swarmed by the dog. It jumped up on him and licked his face. He tried to gently push it away, but the poodle pushed with all its might and got in close and licked his face some more.

_Mmmm. You're delicious! Hehehe! I'd never get to do this if I wasn't a poodle!_

Now he pushed the dog away firmly but it returned to press its nose against his crotch putting it's cold black nose under his package and lifting the prominent scarlet bulge two times before being pushed away. "Jeez doggy!" laughed Kid Flash. "Leave my equipment alone for god's sake!"

_Hehehe. What a package! Speedy likes!_

To Kid Flash's exasperation, the big poodle now tried to hump his leg. He shoved the dog away but it just kept returning. He'd pushed it away a third time just as Robin and Raven returned.

"Whose dog is this?" asked an exasperated Kid Flash.

"Speedy," answered Robin.

"What's its name? I've-I've never had a dog go after me like this. I think they could usually sense that I'm a cat person but this thing wants to do me, for god's sake."

"It went for me, too," laughed Jinx. "Maybe that proves it's Speedy's dog, making a play for everyone!"

Everyone laughed but Speedy the big poofy poodle was indignant.

_Hey!_

"Maybe there's such a thing as being tooooo comfortable with your sexuality," joked Raven eliciting big laughs from the others but a slight growl from the oversexed poodle.

"Its name. Hmm. Speedy didn't say before he took off. Why don't we just call it Speedy Dog? Maybe Speedy'll tell us when he comes back in three days.

_Hey? Three days! I've gotta spend three days like this!_

"In the meantime, it'll have to stay outside. Speedy says it's got no self control whatsoever."

"Takes one to own one," added Raven.

Robin and Raven escorted Speedy the shorn white poodle down to the Tower entrance. Once outside, Robin intended to lecture Speedy but before he could start, the big hyperactive poodle opened its canine mouth.

"Okay, this is kind of humiliating," said Speedy walking up to the glass wall by the entrance. "God! Look at the way I'm shaved into balls of hair." He turned and looked at his big poodle body over his shoulder. "But, hey, I mean, this isn't all bad. I got to poke Kid Flash's ass like a dozen times. I've wanted to do that for sooooo long!. Hehe! What a pair of buns! Wouldn't you kill to have glutes like that, Robin? That boy is so sweeeeeet!"

Robin and Raven stared at him without their expressions changing.

"And Jinx's ass! Soooooooo tight and round mmmm mmmmmm!" said Speedy sitting down dog style ten feet from them. "And, let me tell you. They have each other's smell all over them. All over! He's got a greattasting face! Smelled like her coochie, too! Hehe! His face smelled like her coochie! You know what he's been doing! Hehe! It did! And what a package! You lift that with your nose and you can see why he was the guy who changed things for her. Hehe! Dude is fricking seriously hung. So . . um, you think you guys can get me a bitch?" asked Speedy the poodle.

They stared at him without their expressions changing.

"Okay, a guy would be fine, too, something in a midsize, maybe an elkhound or a greyhound or a shepherd like you were, Robin, that can easily handle mine. That's what Kid Flash would be, huh, a greyhound? Don't you think? But hey, I'm flexible. I actually kind of like switching around. I don't have to be the top dog. Even a big dog, a mastiff or something if I can . . . handle him. Although, that might be tight, like that gymnast kid in the hotel the night before Iris West's funeral. Ouch! Or, what if you got Garth to read that ring inscription. I bet he'd change into a big poofy poodle just like me. Haha! That'd be great! Me and Garth! Likethis! Hehe! Coupla bigpoodles gettin' it on and lovin' it. He thinks I gave it to him doggy style before? Just wait! Hehe! How 'bout it guys?"

They stared at him without their expressions changing.

Speedy felt an odd itch. He shifted how he sat on the ground. His first thought was to reach down to scratch it but he realized that would be kind of awkward, especially at such a sensitive spot. These damn paws! He stretched his whole poodle torso, stuck out his long tongue and carefully licked his white fur covered balls. Finished, he looked up at Raven and Robin. They had identical expressions of one eyebrow raised in a combination of shock and disgust. Robin didn't have so much disgust.

"Oh . . jeez . . I just licked my own balls, didn't I? Hehe! Hey wait! If I can lick my balls . . then . .I can lick . . . !"

Robin and Raven's jaws nearly dropped to the ground. Raven turned away.

"He's not really . . . ?"

"He is," said Robin.

"Oh, you need help," muttered Raven.

"Mmmmmf . . no!" laughed Speedy the poodle. "As . . mmmmf . . you can . . mmmmf . . see, I don't! Mmmmf . . ahhhhhh . . ahhhhhh . . mmmmf . . ahhhh . . ahhh . . ahh . . "

Robin and Raven walked quickly away to the door shocked at the former teen archer's wallowing in his new canine sexuality. "This isn't even punishment anymore," said Robin. "Never mind three days. That spell . . "

"I'll get right on it," she said and shuddered.


End file.
